BRIDGE BARRIER DESIGN FOR HEAVY MINING TRUCKS
The objective of this study was to design a barrier system for the Fort Hills Haul Road Bridge to demonstrate capability of restraining CAT 797 truck from crashing through the barrier and leaving the road. For standard highway loading, CSA-S6-14 or AASHTO LRFD (2012) codes are the primary references for bridge barrier design. These codes do not relate directly to the design of barriers for bridges transporting extremely heavy vehicles (CAT 797 or similar – 700 tons). Consequently, a new barrier system satisfying a present performance evaluation criterion was proposed for study. The proposed barrier
consists of concrete blocks connected to the bridge deck via structural fuses designed to fracture during the collision. The blocks are also tied together via post-tensioning cables to facilitate redistribution of forces and engaging the maximum feasible number of blocks in resisting the impact force. Conducting a full-scale crash test of a fully loaded CAT 797 truck impacting a bridge barrier is impractical, thus, the proposed barrier was evaluated using a highly reliable advanced nonlinear structural dynamics software package, LS-Dyna.
