Roadside Hardware Policy Memoranda

  • November 3, 2010 - Application and Installation of Roadside Hardware
    This memorandum addresses the proper application and installation of roadside safety hardware, and supersedes the memorandum of the same subject dated October 1, 2010. Each Division Office should ensure that its State highway agency includes safety hardware design, selection, construction, and maintenance in their oversight reviews of projects on the National Highway System (NHS).

  • May 17, 2010 - Action Memorandum: Roadside Design: Steel Strong Post W-beam Guardrail
    This memorandum provides guidance to all State DOTs and FHWA Division Offices on the height of guardrail for new installations on the National Highway System (NHS). It details the minimum mounting heights of systems successfully crash tested per the NCHRP Report 350 “Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features” and the AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH).

  • November 20, 2009 - Information Memorandum: Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH)
    The American Association of Stale Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recently published the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH). MASH is an update to and supersedes NCHRP Report 350, Recommended Procedures/or the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features, for the purposes of evaluating new safety hardware devices. MASH is not a design standard and does not supersede the criteria for the design of roadside safety hardware contained within the AASHTO Roadside Design Guide.

  • July 20, 2007 - Information Memorandum: Cable Barrier Considerations
    This guidance memorandum addresses the increasing variations in the number of cables, cable heights, post spacing, cable pre-stretch, cable tensioning, slope placement, length between anchorages, placement on curves, soil conditions/footing design, and other factors leading to confusion among those specifying or designing cable barrier systems. The memo offers points to consider when dealing with these issue and discusses recently completed research as well as ongoing work that will lead to objective guidance for cable barrier design and placement. An attachment to this memorandum provides links to Web sites with additional cable barrier information.

  • November 18, 2005 - Information Memorandum: FHWA Hardware Acceptance Procedures-Category 2 Work Zone Devices
    This memorandum modifies and simplifies the hardware acceptance procedures for Category 2 Work Zone Devices that were originally set out in the July 25, 1997 policy memorandum.

  • November 17, 2005 - Action Memorandum: Supplementary Guidelines for the Selection of W-Beam Barrier Terminals
    This memorandum supplements the October 26, 2004 memorandum on the same topic, and provides additional information to assist designers in making appropriate barrier terminal selections.

  • October 26, 2004 - Information Memorandum: Guidelines for the Selection of W-Beam Barrier Terminals
    The purpose of this memorandum is to provide specific information on the characteristics of most W-beam guardrail terminals that have been accepted for use on the NHS under the test evaluation criteria contained in NCHRP Report 350, and to provide guidelines for their selection.

  • August 28, 1998 - Action Memorandum: National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 350 Hardware Compliance Dates
    This policy memorandum establishes the implementation dates for mandatory crashworthiness testing for several categories of roadside hardware.

  • August 28, 1998 Information Memorandum: Crash Tested Work Zone Traffic Control Devices [PDF 3.73 MB]
    This memorandum provides additional information, including a series and questions and answers, related to the implementation of the crashworthiness testing program in for traffic control devices used in work zones.

  • July 25, 1997 - Action Memorandum: Identifying Acceptable Highway Safety Features [PDF 1.25 MB]
    This policy memorandum establishes an October 1, 1998 deadline for crashworthiness testing according to NCHRP Report 350. Revised compliance dates for some categories of hardware were announced on August 28, 1998 (see above).

Return to top

Program Contact

John Dewar
Roadway Departure Team Leader

202-366-2218

What’s New

Proposed Revision of the 2009 MUTCD – Compliance Dates NEW!

FHWA Technical Advisory T 5040.40: Center Line Rumble Strips NEW!

FHWA Memo: Technical Advisories for Rumble Strips NEW!

Roadway Departure Safety Implementation Plans

Roadway Departure Countermeasures

Roadside Design: Steel Strong Post W-beam. A guidance memo was issued on May 17, 2010 on the height of guardrail for new installations. Guidance regarding existing guardrail will be developed in the next several months, in consultation with AASHTO's Technical Committee on Roadside Safety.

Pavement Marking Retroreflectivity Notice of Proposed Rulemaking [HTML, PDF]

MUTCD Text of the Proposed Pavement Marking Retroreflectivity Standard

Summary of the MUTCD Pavement Marking Retroreflectivity Standard

Revised Assessment of Economic Impacts of Pavement Marking Retroreflectivity

Publications

Low Cost Treatments for Horizontal Curve Safety

The Safety Edge