Engineering Commons^™

An Investigation Of Core-Strengths Of A Portland Cement Concrete Pavement, James H. Havens

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This investigation concerns observed differences between the strengths of molded cylinder and beam specimens and the strength of concrete in situ. The specific project is a section of I 64 in Rowan County [I 64-6(15)130]. The paving was done between August 19 and September 27, 1968. Cylinder specimens molded on the project were tested after they had cured 28 days. Beam specimens were tested before they had cured 14 days. Those test results were "normal". However, cores taken to measure thickness of the pavement were subsequently tested for strength; and the pavement cores, even though older when tested, yielded strengths …

Weighing Vehicles In Motion [1969], University Of Kentucky Research Foundation

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

An agreement between the Kentucky Department of Highways and the University of Kentucky Research Foundation, dated March 15, 1969, extended and continued research on Weighing Vehicles in Motion. The agreement contained these objectives of the continuing research:

"The services provided by the FOUNDATION shall be within the scope of the objectives outlined in the original proposal and made a part of the original contract (Research Project KYHPR-61-27, Development of an Electronic Means of Weighing Vehicles in Motion, a part of the DEPARTMENT'S Work Program, HPR-1, Part II). The research shall consist of, but not limited to, the following:

A. Furnishing …

Selected Features Of Kentucky Geology From Lexington To Pineville, Herbert F. Southgate, Tommy C. Hopkins, Gordon D. Scott

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Kentucky has been disturbed by two major catastrophic events. The major portion of the state was upheaved to what is referred to as the Cincinnati Anticline, and erosion has resulted in forming of several physiographic regions, four of which will be traversed on this trip--namely, the Inner Blue Grass region, the Outer Blue Grass region, the Knobs, and the Eastern Coal Fields. The second major catastrophic event was the Appalachian folding, of which the Pine Mountain Overthrust and its faulting affects the southeastern Kentucky area.

The Inner Blue Grass region contains the lowest exposed geologic formation in Kentucky which is …

Engineering Geognosy Of Warren County, Jerry G. Pigman, Tommy C. Hopkins

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Engineering soils and geologic maps are proving to be invaluable to engineers, industrial leaders, community planners, and administrators during the preliminary stages of planning and site selection. Quantitative engineering data on soils and geological formations, and the interpretation of these data, are important factors to consider in developing the best land-use plans and providing stable foundations for highways, buildings, and other structures, such as dams. Information of this type, when available, is being used by public and private organizations in planning urban development. Engineering soils and geologic maps can be used to great advantage in four major ways by planners …

Grooving Pavement Centerlines For Lane Demarcation, Ronald D. Hughes, Gordon R. Garner

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Lane demarcation is conventionally accomplished by use of white traffic paint placed as a skip line. Most traffic paints are beaded by premixing glass beads in the paint, by drop-on applications, or a combination of the two. The retrodirective properties of the beads greatly enhance nighttime visibility during dry weather; however, visibility of the lines is practically nil during wet nighttime driving. Submerged beads cannot redirect the light when the need for guidance is mosL critical. Thermoplastic striping materials have been used to varying degrees of success by numerous agencies. Wet nighttime visibility of thermoplastics, as experienced in Kentucky, is …

A Preliminary Evaluation Of Mounds To Divert Wayward Vehicles Away From Rigid Obstructions, Gordon R. Garner, J. B. Venable

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

In the summer of 1965, the first fatality report involving an interstate median bridge pier in Kentucky caused concern among state and national officials for the safety of motorists who perchance or otherwise enter upon a collision course toward an unprotected bridge pier. A consensus of opinion seemed to indicate that some form of attenuation or deflection device was necessary.

Early innovations employed various short guardrail configurations to deflect wayward vehicles from the piers. The use of small, short sections has since evolved until present methods include surrounding the bridge pier with several hundred feet of guardrail, including ramped-end treatment …

Engineering Geognosy Of Boyd County, Tommy C. Hopkins, Jerry G. Pigman

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Engineering soils and geologic maps are proving to be invaluable tools of engineers, industrial leaders, community planners, and administrators during tbe preliminary stages of planning and site selection for major construction projects and the development of plans to use nature's basic resource--the land. Quantitative engineering data for soils and geological formations, and the interpretation of tbese data, are important factors to consider in the best land-use plans and in providing stable foundations and proper usage of earth materials for highways, buildings, and other earth structures. Engineering soils and geologic maps can be used to great advantage by planners and engineers …

Lateral Distribution Of Traffic On A Four-Lane And Six-Lane Section Of I 75 South Of Covington, Robert L. Lynch, Gary N. Hamby

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

With the increased construction of multilane highway facilities in the past few years, the need for establishing corresponding design and traffic operational criteria for these highways has resulted. This is especially true for rural, multilane facilities, since few of these highways are not, as yet, operating at a critical level of traffic service.

One area of traffic operational characteristics that has received very little attention in the past concerns the distribution of vehicles by lane on multilane highways. The capacity for these highways have been defined by the one-directional traffic volume rather than by the individual lane volumes. The distribution …

The Bump At The End Of The Bridge, Tommy C. Hopkins, Robert C. Deen

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The nature and causes of the differential settlements between a bridge deck and the adjoining highway approach pavement have been the subject of an increasing number of investigations in recent years. This settlement of the highway approach pavement not only presents a hazardous condition to rapidly moving traffic, but creates a rough and uncomfortable ride. These defects of the pavement surface require costly maintenance and, where a heavy traffic flow exists, the maintenance operation may tend to impede the normal flow.

Bridge abutments in Kentucky are usually founded on relatively a stable foundation such as rock or point-bearing piles to …

Accidents At Median Crossovers, Gordon R. Garner

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Safety improvements are often controversial subjects, especially when the subject is highways. Judgments must be made weighing lives and injuries against the hard realities of financing the construction and maintenance of highway systems. Median crossovers on rural and urban freeways and expressways are controversial design features. State police and maintenance forces claim that median crossovers are necessary and essential for their work and that more frequent location of crossovers is desirable. Engineers involved with highway safety maintain that crossovers create accidents, are not necessary, and should be eliminated. When working on an accident study evaluating median type, it became obvious …

Analysis Of Traffic Loads On Bridges: Report Ii Characteristics Of Traffic On Ohio River Bridges - 1968, Robert L. Lynch

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The recent bridge disaster at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, has renewed concern about the mechanism of material fatigue as a possible cause of catastrophic failure of bridge structures. A reasonable methodology for evaluating the fatigue condition of the highway bridge requires a knowledge of the distribution of traffic loads utilizing the facility during the analysis period. The accuracy of such an analysis is dependent on the accuracies of the input data -- material fatigue properties and traffic characteristics. The more critical of the above parameters, with respect to accuracy, appears to be traffic characteristics. This is especially true of vehicle …

Rheological And Ultimate Strength Properties Of Cohesive Soils, Gordon D. Scott

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

In recent years, there have been considerable advances made in rheological theory and its application to various materials. There has not been, however, nearly as much work done toward applying rheology to soil mechanics as the successes of others would seem to indicate. For instance, it has been shown that a variety of stress and deflection problems considering the application of a load by means of an elastic plate to an elastic foundation can be extended to include rate effects through the application of linear viscoelastic theory. Before this theory can be applied to foundation design, however, two questions must …

Settlement Of Highway Bridge Approaches And Embankment Foundations, Tommy C. Hopkins

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The nature and causes of the differential settlement between a bridge deck and the adjoining highway pavement have been studied by only a few investigators. Highway engineers often attribute this fault in the riding surface to the settlement of the embankment because of the improper placement and compaction of material in the approach embankment. Although there exists suggestive evidence that this condition produces the bridge approach fault, no conclusive evidence has been presented which shows this to be the primary source of settlement. Jones (1), Bishop (2) and Deen (3) suggest that differential settlement between the bridge deck and approach …