TDOT removing hundreds of X-Lite guardrail terminals from Tri-Cities roads

Johnson City, TN (WJHL) — A guardrail safety device that soon will be removed from Tennessee roadways because of safety concerns can be found on roads all around the Tri-Cities, a News Channel 11 investigation has discovered.

After a request for information, the Tennessee Department of Transportation confirmed there are approximately 337 X-Lite guardrail end terminals in District 17, the nine counties in TDOT’s northeast Tennessee district.

In March, TDOT announced it would make the unprecedented move of removing every X-Lite terminal statewide.  TDOT estimated more than 1800 had been installed since early late 2014 and early 2015.

The decision to remove the terminals came after four fatal crashes in Tennessee since the summer of 2016 involving X-Lite terminals.  The X-:Lite was designed to collapse the metal guardrail like a telescope in a head-on crash.   But TDOT’s chief engineer said the rail pierced the car in the fatal crashes, something that alarmed TDOT staff according to the agency’s Chief Engineer.

“We just haven’t seen that type of result from a guardrail crash really in the history of most of the employees in the department,” said Paul Degges, TDOT chief engineer.   “Those are the types of crashes that became very alarming to us.  We would see a piece of projecting end guardrail with no head end on it.”

In October 2016 after two crashes involving 3 fatalities, TDOT pulled the X-Lite from its list of approved terminals which contractors could install in the TDOT network.   But by February 2017, TDOT administrators were so concerned about the product that the state ordered all X-Lite terminals to be removed statewide.

READ: TDOT Commissioner’s letter to FHWA about the X-Lite terminal

Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker also wrote a letter to FHWA asking the agency to collect crash data nationwide and consider revoking its letter of eligibility for the X-Lite terminal issued by the agency in 2011.

READ:  Sens. Alexander and Corker letter to FHWA

LindsayTransportation Solutions, the maker of the X-Lite terminal, said safety is the company’s number one priority.

The X-Lite guardrail end terminal has successfully passed crash and safety tests in accordance with FHWA standards and criteria, and remains qualified for use on America’s roadways,” said Scott Marion, President of Lindsay’s Infrastructure Division in statement April 21st.  “As experts such as FHWA have pointed out, there are impact conditions that exceed the performance expectations of all road safety equipment–including severity of an impact, vehicle speed, highway design, type and size of a vehicle, installation and maintenance of the product, the angle at which a vehicle makes impact–and the equipment’s inability to singly prevent every tragedy does not indicate a flaw or defect.”

TDOT awarded contracts for the replacement of X-Lite terminals statewide, a project Degges said he hoped would be finished in the summer.

In response to News Channel 11 requests for information, TDOT released the following county-by-county numbers of X-Lite terminals.

• Carter County – 38
• Greene County – 53
• Hamblen County – 41
• Hancock County – 9
• Hawkins County – 85
• Johnson County – 12
• Sullivan County – 33
• Unicoi County – 20
• Washington County – 46

Below is the location of X-Lite terminals in the Tri-Cities region.  Source:  TDOT

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