About

Task Force 13 (TF13) maintains this web utility, which is a content management system for various categories of Roadside Hardware. The web utility allows full viewing, searching and browsing by the general public. All content is provided for informational purposes only. The Task Force 13 Guide to Standardized Roadside Hardware and its contents do not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.

An index of the various hardware categories is shown on the right. Within each category, users may browse a list of all Systems/Components, or search for a particular System/Component based on defined search criteria. Contact information for people and organizations that have submitted materials are shown in the Contacts/Manufacturers section. Some materials require third-party software to view the files. Files with the PDF extension require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. DWG and DGN files can be viewed with various CAD file viewers.

Crash Testing

Since 2011, roadside safety hardware systems have been classified, crash tested, and evaluated in accordance with the AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH). MASH classifies most hardware according to six (6) test levels. The test levels are based on a matrix of required crash tests involving different types of vehicles impacting the bridge railings at different speeds and angles.

From 1993 to 2011, roadside hardware were generally tested and evaluated using the guidelines shown in NCHRP Report 350, which contains essentially the same six (6) test levels as MASH. In general, this Guide contains only systems tested and evaluated using MASH or NCHRP Report 350 criteria. Crash test compliance data provided does not imply satisfactory performance for any application other than what is specifically contained in official crash-test reports cited, and is provided for information purposes only.

Units

Dimensions in drawings are given in both inches and millimeters, with the millimeter measurement in brackets. For example, a height of 30 inches (762 millimeters) is labeled as 30 [760]. In general, unit conversions and rounding conform to the recommendations of AASHTO R1-91.