The "W-Beam Guardrail Identification and Repair Guidelines" publication, 2022 edition, was developed and disseminated by the ATSSA Guardrail Committee's Repair and Maintenance Guidelines Task Force. The purpose of this guide is to provide highway and maintenance personnel with up-to-date information on how to identify systems and repair damaged W-beam guardrail.

View the interactive guidelines publication

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has issued a letter clarifying the process to obtain an eligibility letter for cable barrier systems.

The “open letter” from Michael S. Griffith, director of the Office of Safety Technologies in the Office of Safety, is addressed to members of the “highway safety hardware and roadside design community.”

He notes that the FHWA received questions about the eligibility letter over the past several months.

Though they may be overlooked, guardrails are important countermeasures to mitigating fatalities and injuries that result from roadway departure (RwD) crashes, which account for more than 50 percent of all motor vehicle traffic fatalities.

Each day guardrails save lives on our nation’s roadways. They are part of an important integrated safety system that helps to mitigate roadway departure (RwD) crashes.

The guardrail did exactly what it was designed to do: The guardrail’s end terminal absorbed the energy of the impact and deflected the guardrail away from the vehicle.

There are also countless stories from people whose lives have been saved by a median cable barrier or roadside guardrail like Congressman John J. Duncan, Jr., whose life was positively impacted by the lifesaving presence of a guardrail during a serious crash in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Oct. 23, 2009.

Over the years, ATSSA has demonstrated that the installation or upgrade of roadway safety features – many of them available at low-cost – can provide immediate and substantial safety benefits for all. The expertise, knowledge and experience of ATSSA members are in the development and installation of traffic control devices and roadside safety features that make the roadway safer and more forgiving for all users of the roadway system. This document (in large part) focuses on the policies and practices needed to move America Toward Zero Deaths (TZD).

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is improving its process for issuing Federal-aid eligibility letters for roadside safety hardware systems. The FHWA's Federal-aid eligibility letters are provided as a service to the States and are not a requirement for roadside safety hardware to be eligible for Federal-aid reimbursement. 

The National Cooperative Highway Research Board provided a review and update of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officals' "Roadside Design Guide."

The FHWA is exploring several potential options for reviewing, evaluting, and accepting the results of crash testing of roadside safety hardware that is intended to be used on the National Highway System (NHS). The options are for discussion only.