Publisher's Synopsis
Recent failures of high-mast lighting towers (HMLTs) have raised questions about the robustness of the existing inventory of these structures. Safety of the motoring public is an obvious concern as many of the collapsed structures have fallen on, or near, the adjacent roadway. Fatigue failures have occurred at the baseplate-to-column weld, handhole detail, and anchor rods, with several of the failed structures being in service for less than 5 years. The goal of NCHRP Project 10-74 is to increase the reliability of HMLTs through investigation of wind-induced loads, resulting in the development of rational design criteria for fatigue design of HMLTs. Long-term field monitoring was performed to evaluate the in-service response of HMLTs; specifically, the magnitude and frequency of wind-induced loads experienced by these structures. Data were collected from 11 HMLTs over the course of 2 years. Wind speed data and stress-range histogram
