Feasibility of Tubular Fender Units for Pier Protection Against Vessel Collision. Technical Summary Report; Summary rept

摘要

The potential for vessel collisions with bridges is rapidly increasing, as a larger number of heavier vessels are making more frequent trips under bridges. In the United States, rigorous design of bridges for vessel collision was first incorporated in 1991 by the AASHTO Guide Specification and Commentary for Vessel Collision Design of Highway Bridges, in which a model to determine vessel collision forces required for designing bridge elements was introduced. The Guide, of which portions have been adopted into the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Specifications, does not provide specific provisions for the design of pier protection systems. Given the high number of bridge structures in navigable waterways in Louisiana, bridge pier protection is of concern to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LADOTD), and it was desired that bridge fender systems that provide acceptable collision performance be identified. The goal of this project was to identify existing protective systems and propose new systems that can be used to mitigate the effects of bridge/vessel collisions.