Designing Roadside Safety Hardware for Emerging Vehicle Types

The objective of this Pooled Fund is to assist transportation agencies in designing safe, reliable, and cost-efficient transportation network for the expanding fleet of emerging heavy vehicles. One primary focus of this research program will be to improve roadside safety hardware to address identified performance limitations. Standard W-beam guardrail is the most common longitudinal barrier system used across the country, and crash testing has already demonstrated its inability to contain emerging vehicles. Other current roadside safety standards will be tested under the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 22-61. This program will support the next important research step of improving the design of hardware found to be noncompliant with the AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) criteria when tested with emerging vehicles. The scope of this Pooled Fund will also include other needed emerging vehicle research areas, such as the effects of emerging vehicles on roadway geometric design and loading on transportation structures such as parking garages. Given the increasing percentage of emerging vehicles across the country, all states will benefit from participation in this Pooled Fund program.

• Record URL:
  • http://www.pooledfund.org/Details/Study/1786

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Programmed
• Funding: $1,500,000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  TPF-5(553)

• Sponsor Organizations:

  California Department of Transportation

  1227 O Street
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95814

  Georgia Department of Transportation

  600 West Peachtree St
  Atlanta, GA  United States  30308

  Illinois Department of Transportation

  2300 S. Dirksen Parkway
  Springfield, IL  United States  62764

  Iowa Department of Transportation

  800 Lincoln Way
  Ames, IA  United States  50010

  Ohio Department of Transportation

  Research Program
  1980 West Broad Street
  Columbus, OH  United States  43223

  Texas Department of Transportation

  125 E. 11th Street
  Austin, TX  United States  78701-2483

  Virginia Department of Transportation

  1408 E Broad Street
  Richmond, VA  United States  23219

  Washington State Department of Transportation

  Transportation Building
  Olympia, WA  United States  98504

  New Jersey Department of Transportation

  1035 Parkway Avenue
  Trenton, NJ  United States  08625

  Florida Department of Transportation

  Research Center
  605 Suwannee Street MS-30
  Tallahassee, FL  United States  32399-0450
• Project Managers:

  Kasberg, Katelyn

• Start Date: 20250224
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Electric vehicles; Geometric design; Guardrails; Heavy vehicles; Highway safety; Roadside structures
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01948348
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Federal Highway Administration
• Contract Numbers: TPF-5(553)
• Files: RIP
• Created Date: Mar 11 2025 3:07PM