Terminal and Crash Cushion

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Terminal and Crash Cushion

Terminal Ends, Crash Cushions, Gating and Non Gating CrashCushions, are three of the General Hazard Type s  in RSAP describing a type of  Roadside Hazard .



Modern, crash tested longitudinal barrier terminals are complex devices which are designed for two basic impact conditions: (1) end-on impacts and (2) length-of-need impacts. The hazard severity included in RSAPv3 represents impacts only at the end of the terminal (i.e., prior to the length-of-need). The station and Offset of the traffic-end of the terminal should be specified when a terminal is present. The length of need of a terminal should be modeled using the w-beam guardrail hazard, specifying the start and end stations and Offsets. In other words, the length of the terminal is not specified specifically under the terminal hazard. The length of need stations and Offsets and the terminal end station and Offset are coincident and should be entered as such. Additionally, the length of need and the barrier the terminal is attached to are coincident. It is important that coincident points be entered correctly; otherwise, RSAPv3 will stop the analysis and require the terminal definition on the Alternatives Worksheet Scribble40 be corrected. The photo below is an example. The photo is taken looking up-station (i.e., in the primary direction of travel), therefore the direction of offset is Right. The distance of offset is measured from the baseline (e.g, the baseline is the centerline of a road) to the hazard. The width of the terminal head is also requested. This value should be entered in the "value" field.



Crash cushions are defined in exactly the same way as terminals.

