In Reply Refer To: 

HSA-10/B149 

400 Seventh St., S.W. 

Washington, D.C. 20590 May 19, 2006 

 Chuck Plaxico, Ph.D. 

 Battelle Memorial Institute 

 505 King Avenue 

 Columbus, Ohio 43201-2693 

Dear Dr. Plaxico: 

In Mr. Michael Halladay’s January 8, 2002, letter to the Ohio Department of Transportation’s 

Mr. Larry Sutherland, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) agreed that the Ohio 

Department of Transportation 32-inch high precast New Jersey shape concrete barrier with a 

standard pin and loop connection met the evaluation criteria for an National Cooperative 

Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 350 test level 3 (TL-3) temporary traffic barrier. 

In your May 1, 2006, letter to Mr. Richard Powers of my staff, you requested the FHWA’s 

concurrence that a new barrier, a 50-inch high precast safety shape with a unique pin and loop 

connection, also be accepted as a TL-3 design. 

Prior to conducting a full-scale crash test, Battelle developed a new design for the pin and loop 

connection through a series of finite element analyses that predicted the design would meet all 

Report 350 evaluation criteria for a TL-3 temporary barrier. The Ohio Department of 

Transportation’s tall barrier is a 50-inch high, modified New Jersey shape concrete barrier with 

each segment being 12-feet long. Since the base width remained a standard 24 inches and the 

top width remained 6 inches, the extended upper sloped face was about 3 degrees steeper than 

the upper slope of a 32-inch tall New Jersey shape. Reinforcement consisted of five #5 steel 

bars and two sections of 6 x 6 x W2.9 welded wire fabric. Segments were connected by 

1.25-inch diameter x 43-inch long galvanized Grade 5 (high strength) steel bolts passing 

through 8 loops (4 loops at the ends of each segment). These loops are made from 0.75-inch 

diameter A36 steel bars bent to an inside radius of 2.25 inches. There are two loops at the top 

of each segment at one end and a single upper loop at the opposite end. The bottom loops are 

reversed, with a single loop beneath the upper double loops and vice versa. Each segment also 

has a single loop, approximately centered between the upper and lower sets of loops. This 

design, shown as Enclosure 1, was successfully tested at the Transportation Research Center in 

East Liberty, Ohio on April 12, 2006. Total installation length was about 200 feet and the 

impact point was approximately 80 feet from the upstream end, resulting in a dynamic 

 
2

deflection of 1.9 meters. Equally severe impacts closer to either unanchored end would be 

expected to result in greater deflections. Enclosure 2 is the test summary sheet. Vehicular 

pitch and roll were significantly less than typically noted in concrete barrier tests, probably due 

to the increase in height and the steeper upper slope that minimizes vehicular climb and roll 

upon contact. 

Based on the crash test results, I agree that this 50-inch high New Jersey portable concrete 

barrier may be considered an NCHRP Report 350 TL-3 design and used on the National 

Highway System at the State’s discretion. The same barrier design in a 20-foot length may 

also be considered a TL-3 barrier, provided the longitudinal reinforcement is equivalent to that 

contained in any other 20-ft segment that has been crash tested successfully. California, 

New York, and Virginia each have such designs. Please note also that the Oregon Department 

of Transportation successfully tested a 42-inch tall F-shape concrete barrier with a similar 

double-shear pin connection to NCHRP Report 350 TL-4. It is very likely that the Ohio 

Department of Transportation 50-inch tall barrier would have similar capacity. 

 

Sincerely yours, 

 

/original signed by/ 

John R. Baxter, P.E. 

 Director, Office of Safety Design 

 Office of Safety 

2 Enclosures