RQ -'5

US Department 400 Seventr St. SW
of Transportation DEC 6 Wasnngton, 0G 20890
Federal Highway Refer to: HNG-14

Administration

Mr. E. Scott Walter
President

Roadway Safety Service, Inc.
700-3 Union Parkway
Ronkonkoma, New York 11779

Dear Mr. Walter:

Your November 28 letter to Mr. Richard Powers provided information on current
marketing efforts by your company to sell the DRAGNET Vehicle Arresting
System, and requested confirmation of its acceptability for use on Federal-aid
highway projects.

In reviewing our files, we note that this acceptance was originally made in
late 1983. A copy of the letter is enclosed for your ready reference and
further use. The caveats for installation and the circumstances under which a
proprietary item can be used on Federal projects identified in that letter
remain valid.

We believe the DRAGNET is a viable safety appurtenance and we will support its
use in appropriate locations when it is selected by a State highway agency.

By copy of this letter, we are notifying our field personnel of our
reconfirmation of the acceptability of the DRAGNET Vehicle Arresting System.

Sincerely yours,

MAG, Main

L. A. Staron
Chief, Federal-Aid & Design Division
Enclosure

Federal Highway Administration
HNG-14:RPowers : gm: 11-30-90:61320

copies to:

HPD-1 HNG-1 HNG-10 HNG-14 RAs w/incoming
Reader, 3212 Reader, 3206 Reader, 3128 File, 3128


DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20590

SEP 22 1983

REFER TO:

HNG-21

Mr. C. C. Walter

President, Roadway Safety
Service, Inc.

111 Ridge Road

Douglaston, New York 11363

Dear Mr. Walter:

This is in reference to your August 10 letter to Mr. Rex C. Leathers,
Associate Administrator for Engineering and Operations, on the subject of
impact attenuators.

Barriers included in the 1977 AASHTO "Guide for Selecting, Locating, and
Designing Traffic Barriers" and classified as either operational or
experimental, except Type MB1 median barriers, are acceptable for Federal-aid
projects. Your product which you call DRAGNET is designated as CE3, Chain-Link
Fence Arresting System, in the above-named AASHTO publication.

We are aware of written articles about tests conducted on your product published
in the 1970 Highway Research Record No. 306 and the 1974 Transportation
Research Record No. 488. We also have the research report entitled, "Dragnet
Vehicle Arresting System," by T. J. Hirsch, Gordon G. Hayes, and Don L. Ivey,
TTI, Technical Memorandum 505-4, February 28, 1969, which was the basis

for the article in HRR No. 306.

We presume that you have corrected the deficiencies of the system noted during
the crash tests. We are particularly concerned about the hazard posed by
the protruding anchor posts or piers on which the metal benders are mounted.
These should either be shielded, made breakaway, or kept flush with the
ground. The posts supporting the chain-link fence or other net fencing
should be breakaway. It is also important that the design of the metal
bender tape tension and tape length and of the geometry of an installation
be suited to the site requirements. As noted in the research report, the
system failed in one test because one of the tapes ran out. In another,
the dragnet was engaged too low on the front of the vehicle which resulted
jin the vehicle's rear end vaulting the net after most of the longitudinal
deceleration had occurred. Thus, it was shown that the height of the net
and its position should be such that it completely entraps the front of

the entering vehicle.


2

You should be aware, that since it is a proprietary product, certain conditions
must be met before it can be specified in a Federal-aid highway project.

For each project there should be a finding that (a) it is the only product
available for a particular application, or (b) it will compete with other
products suitable for similar applications, or (c) it is for use in an experi-
mental installation, or (d) when there are other acceptable materials and
products available its use without competitive bidding is found to be in the
public interest.

Sincerely yours,

Signed by Robort J. Probst

Ronald E. Heinz
Chief, Highway Design Division

Federal Highway Administration
HNG-21:CLeonin:rjd:60312:9/21/83
cc: Mr. Leathers, 3212

Mr. Phillips, 3212

Mr. Sillan, 3124

Mr. Leonin, 3124

Mr. Hatton, 3124

File, 3124

Div. Rdr., 3124

Reader file, 3212

Reader file, 3124

Regional Administrators, Regions 1-10