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Home > Roadway Departure Safety > Policy/Guidance > Roadside Hardware Guidance

Roadside Hardware Policy Memoranda

• November 27, 2012 - NCHRP Report 711: Guidance for the Selection, Use, and Maintenance of Cable Barrier Systems
  Updates July 20, 2007, memo "Cable Barrier Considerations" with link to NCHRP Report 711: http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_711.pdf

• October 4, 2012 - Commercial Passenger Vehicle Crashes Involving Roadside Point Hazards
  Includes reference to NCHRP Report 638 "Guidelines for Guardrail Implementation" that highway agencies can use to develop warrants for high performance roadside and median barriers (Test Level 4 and Test Level 5.) Report 638 is on-line at: http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_638.pdf

• June 26, 2012 - Guidance memorandum on the Roadside Design Guide - 4^th Edition
  The purpose of this memo is three-fold: reiterate the status of the RDG for FHWA, summarize significant changes in the RDG 4^th edition, and add Frequently Asked Questions to our website.

• May 21, 2012 - Roadside Safety Hardware-Federal-Aid Reimbursement Eligibility Process
  The purpose of this memorandum is to describe the Federal-aid reimbursement eligibility process for roadside safety hardware.

• 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).

• 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 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.

• November 17, 2005 - In Service Performance Evaluation and Continuous Monitoring…
  Recommends that states monitor the performance of crashworthy roadside safety hardware to assess field performance, considering installation conditions and maintenance history among other factors. States may find guidance on ISPEs in NCHRP Report 490 “In Service Performance of Traffic Barriers” available here: http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_490.pdf

• 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.

• January 3, 2000 - Guidelines for the Selection of Crash Cushions [PDF,641 KB]
  While some of the attenuators listed in this memo have been upgraded by their manufacturers, the guidance in the attachment provides information a designer should find useful in selecting from the currently available crash cushions / impact attenuators listed in the 4th Edition of the Roadside Design Guide.

• 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.

• February 28, 1992 - Performance of Guardrail Curb Combinations [PDF, 267 KB ]
  Provides background and guidance on the use of curbs in the vicinity of guardrails. This information has been expanded and incorporated into the 4th edition of the AASHTO Roadside Design Guide. See RDG Section 5.6.2.1

• 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 6, 1990 - Breakaway Sign and Luminaire Supports [PDF, 567 KB]
  This memorandum predates NCHRP Report 350 but is still in effect. All breakaway devices that were crash tested and included in FHWA Acceptance / Eligibility letters after 1985  were tested and/or evaluated under the same criteria that was incorporated into NCHRP Report 350 in 1993.

• May 18 1989 - Determination of Strengthened Guardrail Deflection [PDF, 3.34 MB]
  The concepts of reducing post spacing and nesting of the w-beam rail can still be effective in reducing the deflection of w-beam guardrail.

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Program Contact

Brian Fouch
Safety Design Team Leader
brian.fouch@dot.gov
(202) 366-0744

What’s New

Guidance memorandum on the Roadside Design Guide - 4^th Edition NEW!

Memorandum - Roadside Safety Hardware-Federal-Aid Reimbursement Eligibility Process NEW!

2009 MUTCD Compliance Dates Revised 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