Development of safer utility poles. Prepared for presentation at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., January 1983.

This paper is based on a FHWA- sponsored research program to develop a breakaway retrofit, concept for roadside timber utility poles. Southwest Research Institute's efforts to achieve this goal are described. The research included analytical (simulations) as well as experimental efforts. The experimental efforts involved static bending tests, pendulum tests, and full- scale tests of poles with subcompact automobiles.