December 9, 2003

HSA-10/B124

Mr. Shane E. Weyant

Corporate Sales and Marketing Director

Creative Pultrusions, Inc.

214 Industrial Lane

Alum Bank, PA 15521

Dear Mr. Weyant:

In your November 10 letter to Mr. Richard Powers of my staff you requested formal 

Federal Highway Administration acceptance of a guardrail design that used a composite 

beam material developed under the DOT Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) 

Program in lieu of a galvanized steel beam element. Your design, called the SuperRail 

Composite Guardrail, was tested to NCHRP Report 350 test level 3 (TL-3) by the 

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas. Copies of the test reports 

and a videotape of the two tests that were conducted were included with your letter.

The SuperRail Composite Guardrail beam element is made via a continuous pultrusion 

process. Its shape is similar to a standard Thrie-beam rail element as shown in Enclosure 

1, but it is composed of fiberglass roving and biaxial fabric layers in a specially 

formulated resin system. For the test installation, six 25-foot long composite rail sections 

were butt-spliced using a separate fiberglass vinyl ester composite splice plate and 

supported on standard W6 x 8.5 steel posts on 6 foot-3 inch centers with routed timber 

blockouts. Mounting height to the top of the rail element was 32 inches.

NCHRP Report 350 test 3-10 and 3-11 were conducted and documented in the October 

2003 SwRI test reports, “Full-Scale Crash Evaluation of a Composite Thrie-Beam 

Guardrail System– Final Report Test CB-101” and “Full-Scale Crash Evaluation of a 

Composite Thrie-Beam Guardrail System – Final Report Test CB-102.” In both the 

small car and the pickup truck tests, the occupant impact velocities (OIVs) and the 

ridedown accelerations (G’s) were below the Report 350 preferred values of 9 m/sec and 

15 G’s, respectively. Maximum dynamic deflection was 787 mm in the pickup truck test 

and both vehicles were successfully contained and redirected. Based on these test results, 

the SuperRail Composite Guardrail may be used on the National Highway System as an 

NCHRP Report 350 TL-3 longitudinal barrier when such use is acceptable to the 

contracting agency. Although tested with steel posts, this rail would also be acceptable 

for use with standard timber posts and offset blocks. Since the SuperRail can be 

produced in a variety of colors, it may prove to be popular in locations where an aesthetic 

barrier is preferred.

I understand you plan to develop a crashworthy terminal for use with the SuperRail 

Composite Guardrail. Until such time as a crashworthy end terminal is tested and 

accepted, the SuperRail must be buried in a backslope with a post and cable terminal as 

was tested, shielded with a crashworthy impact attenuator, or introduced outside the

minimum clear zone selected for the project where the barrier will be used. 
Please note the following special provisions that apply to all FHWA product acceptance 

letters:

• FHWA acceptance is limited to the crashworthiness characteristics of the 

SuperRail and does not address long-term durability or life-cycle costs. 

• Any design changes that may adversely influence the crashworthiness of the 

device will require a new acceptance letter.

• Should the FHWA discover that the qualification testing was flawed, that inservice performance evaluations reveal unacceptable safety problems, or that the 

device being marketed is significantly different from the version that was crash 

tested, this acceptance letter may be modified or revoked.

• You will be expected to certify to potential users that the hardware furnished has 

essentially the same chemistry, mechanical properties, and geometry as that 

submitted for acceptance, and that it will meet the crashworthiness requirements 

of NCHRP Report 350. 

• To prevent misunderstanding by others, this letter of acceptance, designated as 

number B-124 shall not be reproduced except in full. This letter, and the test 

documentation upon which this letter is based, is public information. All such 

letters and documentation may be reviewed at our office upon request. 

• The SuperRail is a proprietary product. When proprietary devices are specified 

by a highway agency for use on Federal-aid projects, except exempt, non-NHS 

projects, they: (a) must be supplied through competitive bidding with equally 

suitable unpatented items; (b) the highway agency must certify that they are 

essential for synchronization with existing highway facilities or that no equally 

suitable alternative exists or; (c) they must be used for research or for a distinctive 

type of construction on relatively short sections of road for experimental 

purposes. FHWA regulations concerning proprietary products are contained in 

Title 23, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 635.411, a copy of which is 

Enclosure 2. 

Since the SuperRail Composite Guardrail is a new product, I strongly encourage you to 

conduct in-service performance evaluations of field installations for several years to 

obtain cost and installation data and information on barrier performance under varied 

weather and temperature conditions. 

Sincerely yours,

 / original signed by /

John R. Baxter

Director, Office of Roadside Design

Office of Safety

2 Enclosures