Guardrails Home Page

Each linear/polyline GIS feature represents the location and extent of an individual guardrail (or similar type of roadway barrier).

Notes:

• Each feature’s placement represents its real-world location, either along the shoulder or median.
   
• Each feature’s attributes also describe its position relative to the road while traveling in the road’s primary (or “inventory”) direction. A guardrail feature with a ROUTE DIRECTION value of “ascending” is adjacent to the side of the road traveling in the primary direction. The SIDE OF ROAD field indicates if the feature is to the left or right of the road when traveling in the primary direction. The GUARDRAIL LOCATION field indicates if the guardrail is located along the side of the road/shoulder or in the median.
  • Example 1: a divided highway with guardrails on each side of each carriageway would have 4 parallel features. Please note how only 1 of the 4 features is listed as being to the “right” of the road (the one on the right side of the road when traveling in the primary route direction.

• Example 2: an undivided highway with guardrails only on each side of the road (shoulder) would have 2 parallel features. Both would be attributed to the “ascending” (or primary) route direction, but one would be listed as “left” and the other “right” in the SIDE OF ROAD field.