I am not familiar with the FHWA examlpe.
When I have performed this calculation in the past the controlling moment was the barrier strength.This would be the extreme II limit state. I calculated the moment capacity of the barrier then the resistance based guidence from AASHTO LRFD Chapter 13. It has been a few years since I have used LRFD and I know that there have been revisions to the code, but refer to the barrier design section of the most current code for guidence.
This case is then checked to see if it controls design in comparison to the other limit states.
I hope this is helpful.
Jim