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NCHRP 22-07 [Completed]
Update of "Recommended Procedures for Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Appurtenances"
| Project Data |
| Funds: |
$200,000 |
| Research Agency: |
Texas A&M University Research Foundation |
| Principal Investigator: |
Dr. Hayes E. Ross, Jr. |
| Effective Date: |
6/1/1989 |
| Completion Date: |
8/31/1992 |
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NCHRP Report 230: "Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Appurtenances," published in March 1981, contained a compilation of recommended procedures for evaluating the safety performance of highway appurtenances. These recommendations were based on a synthesis of information found in the literature and a state-of-the-art survey, and on advice obtained from a select group of acknowledged experts. Since its publication, the report has served as the generally accepted guide for developing and evaluating highway safety hardware. However, the characteristics of the vehicles on our roadways have changed substantially, new safety appurtenances have come into use, and research efforts using full-scale crash tests, bogie and pendulum tests, computer simulations, and traffic accident analyses have resulted in improved understanding of vehicle interactions with highway appurtenances and roadside terrain. On the basis of these changes, an update of NCHRP Report 230 is needed to ensure continued improvement in the level of safety provided users of the highway.
The objective of this study was to update the recommended procedures for the safety performance evaluation of both temporary and permanent highway appurtenances in such a manner as to reflect advances in technology and to accommodate current and anticipated roadway and vehicle characteristics.
This project involved the following efforts: (1) development of a comprehensive list of updating needs, (2) evaluation of the relative importance of each of the needs and the identification of important issues within each topic, (3) preparation of six white papers analyzing the critical issues, (4) preparation of an interim report recommending specific updates to the procedures and evaluation criteria, (5) development of a draft document, (6) an extensive outside review of the draft document to assess the impacts of the proposed changes, and (7) preparation of a final updated version of the procedures based upon an assessment of the feedback derived from the outside review.
Status: The final report has been approved, and it has been published as NCHRP Report 350, "Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features."
NOTE: NCHRP Report 350 is available in portable document format (PDF). Click on the links below to access the report.
NCHRP Report 350, Part A
NCHRP Report 350, Part B
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