The FHWA issued a memo in April 2018 to provide guidance to the FHWA Division Offices to assist in their evaluation that a state DOT has an acceptable process for determining the crashworthiness of roadside safety hardwareused on the National Highway System (NHS).

ATSSA has a committee dedicated to the advancement of guardrails. The association’s Guardrail Committee works to preserve funding through the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), a federal program which dedicates funds to infrastructure safety, promote a fully funded Highway Trust Fund (HTF) and other funding opportunities, work with ATSSA chapters and members to develop and deliver government relations services at the state level and encourage members to utilize these services, and educate the administration on roadway safety infrastructure.

FHWA barrier guidance is contained in the AASHTO Roadside Design Guide. However, FHWA field offices often raise numerous issues that involve interpretations, extrapolations, device selection, hardware deployment, or simply trying to fit safety devices into real world conditions. These questions and answers offer clarification on the use of roadside hardware for issues not covered by FHWA policy or topics that simply need additional explanation. They are the considered opinions of engineers in the FHWA Office of Safety Design and the FHWA Resource Center with helpful input from members of the American Traffic Safety Services Association's Guardrail Committee. 

This new publication, "Safety Benefits of Median Barrier and Roadside Guardrail," was developed to address some of the negative assumptions that have recently affected the guardrail and cable barrier industry. The study showcases the various technologies designed to specifically improve safety on our roadways. Featured are “success stories” where road user(s) lives were saved by the successful performance of guardrail and median barriers.