The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) just recently published an updated 2016 edition of the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) document. Along with this, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and AASHTO developed a revised joint implementation agreement which establishes dates for discontinuing the use of safety hardware that has met earlier crash testing criteria for new installations and full replacements on the National Highway System (NHS). Although some barrier testing was performed during the development of the updated criteria, many barrier systems and other roadside safety features are yet to be evaluated under the proposed guidelines. Therefore, evaluation of the remaining widely used roadside safety features using the safety-performance evaluation guidelines included in MASH is needed.
As we approach MASH implementation agreement sunset dates for NCHRP Report 350 devices many entities, individual state DOT’s, Pooled Funds, and private industry, will be crash testing highway safety devices to MASH standards. The objective of the project is to provide continued support of the Roadside Safety Pooled Fund participant DOTs during this MASH implementation era.
Support will include:
1) maintain and update the pooled fund website, the database of MASH tested devices, as well as the MASH research and testing needs databases;
2) develop and update “Scorecards” for roadside devices based on the FHWA/AASHTO MASH Implementation Plan deadlines;
3) coordinate on MASH testing and research activities, and provide support with the organization and conduction of Webinars targeted to help with the preparation of the pooled fund yearly meeting.
For More Information:
Research Supervisor – Chiara Silvestri Dobrovolny, TTI,
Ph.: 979-845-8971 or E-mail: [email protected]
Task Representative – Jeffery K. Petterson, WsDOT
Ph.: 360-705-7278 or E-mail: [email protected]
