Best Practice

BEST PRACTICE:

G4-15: Non-Redirective Crash Cushion

DESCRIPTION:

Attaching Non-Redirective Crash Cushions—modular narrow water filled crash cushions—to permanent or temporary concrete barriers protects drivers and increases safety for workers in work zones where road workspace is limited. They are intended to reduce the damage to structures, vehicles, and motorists resulting from a motor vehicle collision (for a collision angle between 0o and 20o). Non-Redirective Crash Cushions will either capture the impact vehicle or allow it to pass through when hit along its face (called gating), while meeting American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO) Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) TL-3 crashworthiness test and evaluation criteria.

REASON(S) FOR ADOPTING:

Non-Redirective Crash Cushions are used to protect workers and to safely contain an errant vehicle. They are simple, fast and temporary type of installations. These crash cushions are easy to maintain and have low initial cost to deploy.

PRIMARY BENEFIT(S):

Primary benefits include anchorless installation, resistance to cold weather (by adding deicing agents to filled water), quick deployment and recovery after impact, easy maintenance, low initial cost, and ease of use for contractors. Since the system uses uniform modular components, these crash cushions have multiple transition configurations for attachment to a variety of industry standard and proprietary barrier products.

MOST APPLICABLE LOCATION(S)/PROJECT(S):

Non-Redirective Crash Cushions can be used at highway construction zones, city and municipal construction zones, bridge decks, road sides, exits, wide medians, edges of road locations or where other non-redirective or partially redirective systems are often used (especially where road workspace is limited). The designer should verify that a clear run out area with sufficient length is available behind the device.

STATE(S) WHERE USED:

Colorado , Maryland, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia , Washington

SOURCE/CONTACT(S):

Clark Roberts, Colorado DOT
Phone: (303) 365-7330
E−mail: clark.roberts@dot.state.co.us