There was always a lot to think about in road safety barrier design, but with the introduction of the new roadside risk assessment process in the 2022 version of the Austroads Guide to Road Design Part 6 we’ve hit new levels.
Last week, our Advanced Road Safety Barriers training workshop ran in Brisbane. We had a highly knowledgeable group of road design engineers and technical specialists all eager to maximise roadside and median safety.
Thanks to Jamie Robertson (Safe System Solutions Pty Ltd.) for leading the course and to Santosh Tripathi (Department of Transport and Main Roads), Peter Watson (Safe Direction Pty Ltd) and Hugh Fitzgerald (Ingal Civil Products) for their technical presentations.
Over two intense days we covered:
– what’s new in AGRD Part 6, including; NRRIT (Network Roadside Risk Intervention )
– selecting containment levels
– new checks within the Length of Need calcs
– working width, offset from traffic lane, post spacing, flaring, offset from kerb, runout areas, product selection, point-of-redirection, positioning in relation to the hinge point, etc.
– new accepted products
– new transitions
– median and gore areas
– reducing risk for motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians
– explanation of why we don’t use ‘Clear Zones’ anymore
– Safe System roadside design principles
– Whole-of-life costs of barrier systems, maintenance and installation
– Common design challenges and Design Exception Reporting
… and much more.
Here’s a 1min video summarising the two days.