Safety Eligibility Letter B-150C

U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration

1200 New Jersey Ave. S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20590

November 19, 2010

In Reply Refer To:
HSSI-B150C

Mr. Andrew Artar
Gregory Highway Products
4100 13th St., SW.
Canton, Ohio 44710

Dear Mr. Artar:

This is in response to your January 4, 2010, letter to Mr. David A. Nicol requesting clarification that Gregory Mini Spacer (GMS) W-Beam Guardrail systems are considered crashworthy under both National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 350 and the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH).

The following Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Acceptance Letters have been issued for the GMS systems:

Summary of GMS TL-3 Acceptance Letters

Letter Number	Date	System	GMS Crash Test #
B-150	October 27, 2006	W-Beam	1,2
B-156	March 21, 2007	Thrie-Beam	3
CC-96	December 21, 2007	Terminals for GMS	N/A
B-150A	March 26, 2008	W-Beam	4,6
B-150B	July 16, 2008	W-Beam	7

During the development of the MASH we agreed with various manufacturers that they could conduct crash tests using the 820C vehicle meeting NCHRP Report 350 small car criteria, and the 2270P vehicle meeting the MASH pickup truck criteria in order to develop devices that could be accepted under both test guidelines. The letters above granted “dual” acceptance with that understanding. Those, and subsequent crash tests using the heavier 2270P vehicle have shown it to be a somewhat more stable vehicle than the lighter-weight 2000P pickup truck. Because the FHWA and AASHTO have agreed that NCHRP Report 350 — tested devices may continue in use for the foreseeable future, we concur that the above letters acknowledge the respective GMS systems acceptable under the range of vehicle sizes required by the NCHRP Report 350 and MASH criteria.

Users should note that FHWA has recommended that all W-beam guardrail systems have a minimum height of 27-3/4 inches to the top of the rail. Further, we recommend that the target installation height should be 29 inches with a tolerance of plus or minus one inch. We have also recommended that States consider adopting 31-inch high W-beam guardrail systems, of which the GMS is one of the available proprietary products. Lastly, all conditions and limitations detailed in the above referenced Acceptance Letters remain in effect.

Enclosures