National Academies Press: OpenBook
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Protocols for Collecting and Using Traffic Data in Bridge Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14521.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Protocols for Collecting and Using Traffic Data in Bridge Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14521.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Protocols for Collecting and Using Traffic Data in Bridge Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14521.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Protocols for Collecting and Using Traffic Data in Bridge Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14521.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Protocols for Collecting and Using Traffic Data in Bridge Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14521.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Protocols for Collecting and Using Traffic Data in Bridge Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14521.
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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2011 www.TRB.org N A T I O N A L C O O P E R A T I V E H I G H W A Y R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCHRP REPORT 683 Subscriber Categories Highways • Bridges and Other Structures Protocols for Collecting and Using Traffic Data in Bridge Design Bala Sivakumar HNTB CORPORATION New York, NY Michel Ghosn New York, NY Fred Moses Pittsburgh, PA TranSystems Corporation Kansas City, MO Research sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM Systematic, well-designed research provides the most effective approach to the solution of many problems facing highway administrators and engineers. Often, highway problems are of local interest and can best be studied by highway departments individually or in cooperation with their state universities and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transportation develops increasingly complex problems of wide interest to highway authorities. These problems are best studied through a coordinated program of cooperative research. In recognition of these needs, the highway administrators of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials initiated in 1962 an objective national highway research program employing modern scientific techniques. This program is supported on a continuing basis by funds from participating member states of the Association and it receives the full cooperation and support of the Federal Highway Administration, United States Department of Transportation. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies was requested by the Association to administer the research program because of the Board’s recognized objectivity and understanding of modern research practices. The Board is uniquely suited for this purpose as it maintains an extensive committee structure from which authorities on any highway transportation subject may be drawn; it possesses avenues of communications and cooperation with federal, state and local governmental agencies, universities, and industry; its relationship to the National Research Council is an insurance of objectivity; it maintains a full-time research correlation staff of specialists in highway transportation matters to bring the findings of research directly to those who are in a position to use them. The program is developed on the basis of research needs identified by chief administrators of the highway and transportation departments and by committees of AASHTO. Each year, specific areas of research needs to be included in the program are proposed to the National Research Council and the Board by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Research projects to fulfill these needs are defined by the Board, and qualified research agencies are selected from those that have submitted proposals. Administration and surveillance of research contracts are the responsibilities of the National Research Council and the Transportation Research Board. The needs for highway research are many, and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program can make significant contributions to the solution of highway transportation problems of mutual concern to many responsible groups. The program, however, is intended to complement rather than to substitute for or duplicate other highway research programs. Published reports of the NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM are available from: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 and can be ordered through the Internet at: http://www.national-academies.org/trb/bookstore Printed in the United States of America NCHRP REPORT 683 Project 12-76(01) ISSN 0077-5614 ISBN 978-0-309-15547-2 Library of Congress Control Number 2011923476 © 2011 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA, or Transit Development Corporation endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. NOTICE The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The members of the technical panel selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance. The report was reviewed by the technical panel and accepted for publication according to procedures established and overseen by the Transportation Research Board and approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this report are those of the researchers who performed the research and are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, or the program sponsors. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, and the sponsors of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the object of the report.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. On the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering. The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, on its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine. The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council. The Transportation Research Board is one of six major divisions of the National Research Council. The mission of the Transporta- tion Research Board is to provide leadership in transportation innovation and progress through research and information exchange, conducted within a setting that is objective, interdisciplinary, and multimodal. The Board’s varied activities annually engage about 7,000 engineers, scientists, and other transportation researchers and practitioners from the public and private sectors and academia, all of whom contribute their expertise in the public interest. The program is supported by state transportation departments, federal agencies including the component administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and other organizations and individu- als interested in the development of transportation. www.TRB.org www.national-academies.org

CRP STAFF FOR NCHRP REPORT 683 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs David B. Beal, Senior Program Officer (Retired) Waseem Dekelbab, Senior Program Officer Danna Powell, Senior Program Assistant Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Hilary Freer, Senior Editor NCHRP PROJECT 12-76(01) PANEL Field of Design—Area of Bridges Jimmy D. Camp, New Mexico DOT, Santa Fe, NM (Chair) Susan E. Hida, California DOT, Sacramento, CA Ralph A. Gillmann, Federal Highway Administration, Washington DC Mayrai Gindy, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI David L. Huft, South Dakota DOT, Pierre, SD Terry D. Leatherwood, Tennessee DOT, Nashville, TN Wm. Travis McDaniel, Wisconsin DOT, Madison WI Mohsen Shahawy, SDR Engineering Consultants, Inc., Tallahassee, FL Firas I. Sheikh Ibrahim, FHWA Liaison Stephen F. Maher, TRB Liaison AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research reported herein was performed under NCHRP Project 12-76 by Lichtenstein Consulting Engineers, Inc., Paramus, NJ, (now part of TranSystems Corporation, headquartered in Kansas City, MO) with subcontracting and consulting services provided by Michel Ghosn and Fred Moses. Additional stud- ies on truck sorting strategies were performed under NCHRP 12-76(01) by HNTB Corp. The principal investigator (PI) on this project was Bala Sivakumar, formerly of Lichtenstein Consulting Engineers, Inc, now with HNTB Corp. The calibration methodology, statistical analysis, and error filtration methodology were authored by Michel Ghosn with assistance from Fred Moses. C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S

This report provides a set of protocols and methodologies for using available recent truck traffic data to develop and calibrate vehicular loads for LRFD superstructure design, fatigue design, deck design, and design for overload permits. The protocols are geared to address the collection, processing, and use of national weigh-in-motion (WIM) data. The report also gives practical examples of implementing these protocols with recent national WIM data drawn from states/sites around the country with different traffic exposures, load spec- tra, and truck configurations. The material in this report will be of immediate interest to bridge engineers. This report replaces NCHRP Web-Only Document 135. A new vehicular live-load model was developed for the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications because the HS20 truck from AASHTO’s Standard Specifications for High- way Bridges did not accurately represent service-level truck traffic. The HL93, a combina- tion of the HS20 truck and lane loads, was developed using 1975 truck data from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to project a 75-year live-load occurrence. Because truck traffic volume and weight have increased and truck configurations have become more com- plex, the Ontario data do not represent present traffic loadings. Other design live loads were based on past practice and did not consider actual or projected truck traffic. Although the quality and quantity of traffic data have improved in recent years, this information has not been used to update the bridge design loads. Methods of using enhanced traffic data for bridge design needed to be developed. Under NCHRP Project 12-76 the research team had developed and demonstrated the application of protocols for collecting and processing traffic data to calibrate national bridge live-load models. Additionally, under NCHRP 12-76(01) the research team conducted sensitivity studies and developed key recommendations on sorting of trucks into Strength I and Strength II limit states. Appendices A through F from the research agency’s final report are not published herein but are available on the TRB website (Go to http://trb.org/Publications/Public/PubsNCHRP ProjectReports.aspx and look for NCHRP Report 683). These appendices are titled as follows. • Appendix A—Survey Questionnaires & Responses • Appendix B—Main Features of Selected Studies • Appendix C—National WIM Data Analyses • Appendix D—Potential Processes to Develop and Calibrate Vehicular Design Loads • Appendix E—Implementation of WIM Error Filtering Algorithm • Appendix F—Truck Sorting Strategies & Influence on “r” Values F O R E W O R D By Waseem Dekelbab Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

C O N T E N T S 1 Summary 5 Chapter 1 Background 5 Problem Statement and Research Objective 5 Scope of Study 7 Introduction 8 Chapter 2 Research Approach 8 Research Tasks 8 Overview of Data Collection and Review 9 State-of-the-Practice Summary 21 Proposed Process to Develop Vehicular Live-Load Models 26 Chapter 3 Findings and Applications 26 Background to Development of Draft Recommended Protocols 30 Draft Recommended Protocols for Using Traffic Data in Bridge Design 59 Demonstration of Recommended Protocols Using National WIM Data 88 Additional Studies on Truck Sorting Strategies 103 Findings and Recommendations 106 Chapter 4 Conclusions and Suggested Research 106 Conclusions 107 Draft Recommended Protocols for Using Traffic Data in Bridge Design 110 Demonstration of Protocols Using National WIM Data 111 Recommendations for Sorting Traffic in the WIM Database into Strength I and Strength II 111 Suggested Research and Improvements in Data Collection 113 Bibliography and References 116 Appendices Note: Many of the photographs, figures, and tables in this report have been converted from color to grayscale for printing. The electronic version of the report (posted on the Web at www.trb.org) retains the color versions.

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TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 683: Protocols for Collecting and Using Traffic Data in Bridge Design explores a set of protocols and methodologies for using available recent truck traffic data to develop and calibrate vehicular loads for superstructure design, fatigue design, deck design, and design for overload permits.

The protocols are geared to address the collection, processing, and use of national weigh-in-motion (WIM) data. The report also gives practical examples of implementing these protocols with recent national WIM data drawn from states/sites around the country with different traffic exposures, load spectra, and truck configurations. The material in this report will be of immediate interest to bridge engineers.

This report replaces NCHRP Web-Only Document 135: Protocols for Collecting and Using Traffic Data in Bridge Design.

Appendices A through F for NCHRP Report 683 are available only online. These appendices are titled as follows.

Appendix A—Survey Questionnaires & Responses

Appendix B—Main Features of Selected Studies

Appendix C—National WIM Data Analyses

Appendix D—Potential Processes to Develop and Calibrate Vehicular Design Loads

Appendix E—Implementation of WIM Error Filtering Algorithm

Appendix F—Truck Sorting Strategies & Influence on “r” Values

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