Engineering Commons^™

Development Of Guidelines For The Rating, Inspection, And Acquisition Of Railroad Flatcars For Use As Highway Bridges On Low-Volume Roads, Jason T. Provines, Robert Connor

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Technical Reports

Due to budget constraints, many state and county highway agencies are often forced to develop innovative and economical rehabilitation strategies for deteriorated bridges. One such option is to use a retired railroad flatcar for a bridge superstructure. Railroad flatcars can be found in many lengths, making them versatile options for replacing bridges of a range of span lengths up to about 90 feet. Railroad flatcars are also completely modular and lightweight, allowing for quick construction. Within Indiana, as well as other states, several of these bridge structures have been in service for many years.

Although their performance has been satisfactory, …

An Asset Management Framework For Addressing The New Mutcd Traffic Sign Retroreflectivity Standards, Eric Hulme, Sarah Ml Hubbard, Grant D. Farnsworth, Alexander M. Hainen, Steve M. Remias, Darcy M. Bullock

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Technical Reports

The 2009 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) requires that all agencies implement traffic sign management programs by January 8th, 2012. Most agencies are expected to adopt some type of systematic replacement policy based on life expectancy, augmented by visual inspection to identify signs with obvious damage. Several previous efforts have developed models based on average degradation of the retroreflective sheeting as the signs age. This paper develops a series of survival curves characterizing the percent of signs that pass the retroreflectivity standards for signs ranging from 0 to 20 years. The curves representing expected conformance with the retroreflectivity …