Road safety barriers

Road safety barrier systems are intended to safely redirect the majority of vehicles that unintentionally leave the roadway.

The Austroads Safety Barrier Assessment Panel (ASBAP) assesses the crashworthiness and suitability of tested road safety barrier systems and devices for deployment on roads managed by Australian/New Zealand road agencies in line with AS/NZS 3845.

AS/NZS 3845.1:2015 and AS/NZS 3845.2:2017 identify and outline the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) for the purposes of evaluating new safety hardware on the US highways network. AASHTO MASH supersedes the AASHTO National Cooperative Highway Research Project Report 350 (NCHRP350) evaluation.

In line with AS/NZS 3845, ASBAP has updated its product submission criteria and is transitioning the current suite of accepted products.

The Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics (DIPL) is adopting MASH as the nominal standard for road safety barrier systems in line with ASBAP and AS/NZS 3845. Where there are no MASH tested products for a specific application, DIPL will consider NCHRP 350 and European Standard EN1317 tested products.

Going forward, only products that have been Austroads assessed should be installed on the NT Government road network. This applies to all installations including permanent and workzone (temporary).

All accepted systems have “Technical Conditions for Use” outlining the parameters under which the product is accepted for use and should be read in conjunction with the product manual.

Austroads Safety Hardware Training Accreditation Scheme (ASHTAS)

Austroads members, along with the road safety barrier industry, have been concerned about the quality of installation of road safety barriers which may put the safety of the public and road workers at risk.

To address this issue, Austroads worked with Australian state and territory road transport agencies, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, and industry representatives to introduce a nationally consistent training and ongoing accreditation program to ensure that all installers and operatives in the workforce understand how to install, repair, and maintain road safety barriers correctly following the manufacturer’s specifications and best practices.

Austroads partnered with Lantra (UK) to develop a national accreditation scheme that will require the certification of all people engaged in the design, installation, and maintenance of any road safety barrier system used in New Zealand or Australia.

For more information and communiques on the ASHTAS and training, go to the Austroad website.

ASHTAS adoption

New Zealand and each Australian state and territory will adopt and transition to ASHTAS. A number of jurisdictions are mandating the ASHTAS accreditation to install, repair and maintain road safety barrier systems from 1 July 2024, however, the Northern Territory is yet to define the mandatory commencement of ASHTAS and will review its position once the Installer Courses commence.

The Operative and Installer courses are/will be available from the Lantra approved training providers and include Austroads set content and an exam.  For a list of providers, go to the  Lantra website.

Test level (TL) containment comparisons