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(dramatic music)

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- [Narrator] Concrete
barriers are used on highways

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to separate traffic and protect drivers

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from oncoming traffic.

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These barriers may come

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with higher attachments
deployed to discourage people

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on foot from crossing highways.

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With no national guidelines for design,

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there is a need to study the effectiveness

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of these barriers to improve safety

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for motorists and pedestrians.

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The Texas Department of
Transportation is working

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with the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute

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to identify the types of attachments

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that can be mounted to concrete barriers

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and evaluate their
performance and effectiveness.

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- Occasionally, for whatever reason,

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some folks will try to cross the median

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on a freeway or an
analogous type of roadway.

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And a lot of fatalities
occur with people who are hit

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after crossing or on their
way to cross the barrier.

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So what we wanted to do
here is determine what type

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of attachments or extensions
can we put on these barrier

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to make them tall enough

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and visible enough that
would dissuade people

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from wanting to cross them.

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- The first step that we
took it was actually to look

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at existing attachments
to barriers and think

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about could we actually
potentially use these systems

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and repurpose them with the objective

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of the per pedestrian crossing.

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And so what we wanted to
do is identify systems

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that we could repurpose
for their objective

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and then evaluate them

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to the current criteria that
we have for high speed impacts.

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- The key task was kind
of determining the type

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of systems that we wanted
to kind of really look at.

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So we have a couple of proprietary
type systems that we kind

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of investigated and the researchers

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did some due diligence on those.

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And we also have like a chain
link fence type structure

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that can be used in certain
applications as well.

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- Another thing that we did

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was to actually develop
a non-proprietary system

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with the same objective

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of trying to deter pedestrian crossing.

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And that was with use

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of a chain link fence that
was appropriately designed

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so that it would impede people

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from just crossing or
going over the barrier.

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But at the same time

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it would not present a
hazard in terms of debris

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when it's impacted by vehicles.

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- The guidance that we'll
provide to the districts

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will provide some guidance
on good locations to

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provide this barrier if
they're having a problem

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if they're having historical
crashes where pedestrians

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are crossing.

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And then of course once it's applied

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it will reduce pedestrian fatalities.

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It can't help but do that.

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- We have options.

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It's not just one.

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And we actually found a few
options and we have verified

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through full scale crash
testing that all these systems

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are crash-worthy per the
current federal standards.

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So I'm confident that the results

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of this project not
only will benefit TxDOT

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and the transportation for TxDOT trying to

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help saving lives from a
vulnerable user's perspective

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and making sure that also
occupants in vehicles are safe

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but it will actually
benefit the entire nation.

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- [Narrator] For more information

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and to find the publications
for this project,

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please visit the TxDOT Research Library

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at the link shown below.