The Midwest Roadside Safety Pooled Fund Program is a collaborative program between state DOTs and the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility (MwRSF) dedicated to sponsoring roadside safety research. The goal of this program is to address the roadside safety needs of state DOTs, solve problems of similar interest, and standardize safety features across state borders. MwRSF and Pooled Fund member states eagerly welcome new members. The goals of the Midwest Roadside Safety Pooled Fund Program include: 1) improving highway safety by making the roadside less hazardous for motorists; 2) designing, developing, and crash testing innovative roadside safety hardware to current impact safety standards, such as the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH); 3) conducting safety performance evaluations of existing roadside features; 4) performing computer simulation modeling of vehicle impacts with roadside hardware and geometric features; and 5) developing roadside safety guidance to aid transportation agencies in improving motorist safety.

The Midwest Roadside Safety Pooled Fund Program provides a wide variety of research capabilities and expertise to its members. The Midwest Roadside Safety Facility (MwRSF) is a full-service testing laboratory that offers compliance testing, design, redesign, failure analysis, and component testing of roadway and roadside appurtenances. MwRSF’s testing experience includes performance testing of guardrail, bridge rails, noise walls, concrete barriers, delineators, luminaries, mailboxes, work zone sign supports, and component testing of post designs, break-away and slip bases, as well as materials testing. In addition to testing of safety hardware and components, MwRSF can perform vehicle handling and friction testing. MwRSF is an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 Accredited Laboratory. In 2009, MwRSF was approved for accreditation by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) in the field of safety performance evaluation of highway features and vehicle testing of crash barriers for the tests identified in the Scope of Accreditation. The Midwest Roadside Safety Pooled Fund Program and MwRSF have led the development of innovative barrier systems and roadside safety guidance for over 30 years. The Midwest Pooled Fund Program and MwRSF have developed many of the most common and successful barrier systems in use on roads today, and their research has formed the basis of many of the roadside safety guidance used in the AASHTO Roadside Design Guide (RDG), MASH, and individual state standards. Some examples of this influence would include development of the Zone of Intrusion (ZOI) concept, development of updated cable barrier test matrices for MASH 2016, and design of a variety of barrier systems ranging from bullnose barriers, approach guardrail transitions, various longitudinal barriers and bridge rails, and other hardware, that form the basis for many states standard plans. The Midwest Roadside Safety Pooled Fund Program has access to expert researchers at MwRSF that are proficient in the use of state-of-the-art computer software, including LS-DYNA, Barrier VII, CarSim, and others, to simulate real-life impact events. Using computer simulation, it is possible to design more advanced barrier systems, reduce design costs, and better understand system behavior outside the range of standard crash testing. Midwest Roadside Safety Pooled Fund Program members also have access to the following benefits. 1. The ability to address and prioritize safety topics critical for state departments of transportation. 2. Access to top-tier research staff with extensive experience and a repository of historical data as well as an exclusive opportunity to submit consulting questions. 3. Ability to collaborate with other Midwest Pooled Fund member states. 4. Staff assistance with preparing MASH evaluations for FHWA division offices and determining MASH-crashworthiness of devices without conducting full suite of tests. 5. Direct involvement and input on new innovations and major advancements in safety that reduce fatal and serious injury crashes. Most developments are non-proprietary and do not create IP problems. 6. Extensive dissemination of research results via technical reports, journal paper publications, conference presentations, webinars, and a free web library.

SPR-B Waiver letter is in FHWA evaluation process.

Annual contribution is $65,000 per state/agency.