Channelization guidelines to accomodate longer and wider trucks at at grade intersections

This report addresses issues concerning the design of at grade intersections to accommodate the turning characteristics of the various longer and wider truck configurations that were introduced into the traffic stream by 1982 federal and state legislation. The objectives of this research were to complete a literature review of research concerning truck sizes, turning characteristics, and channelization; determine encroachment and swept path width for various combinations of design vehicle, curb radii, and degree of turn; and develop guidelines for design, operation, and channelization of at grade intersections to accommodate these larger vehicles. The research procedure followed was to select five typical, large design vehicles, (wb-50, wb-55, wb-70, wb-100, wb- 105), simulate their paths through several degrees of turn at different turning radii, create a table listing their behavior at specific corner curb radii, and develop guidelines specifying conditions where channelization is feasible. Information gathered concerning the turning characteristics of the longer and wider design vehicles and turning templates depicting their minimum turning paths are detailed in the first section of the study results. The second part of the results contains several tables that detail the interaction of each design vehicle with the degree of turn and curb radius. These tables list such things as cross street width occupied, swept path width, conditions where channelization is feasible, and minimum designs for turning roadways (a).