New Regulation Australian Barrier Assessment Transitioning to MASH Guidelines
The eligibility criteria for product submissions to the Austroads Safety Barrier Assessment Panel has changed, effective 23 April 2018.
Stan Robb, Chair of the Austroads Safety Barrier Assessment Panel (ASBAP), has written to industry advising of the change.
Since its introduction in 1999, the Australian/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 3845 has used the National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 350 (NCHRP 350) guidelines as the basis for testing protocols to assess safety barrier related hardware and devices. ASBAP reviews have been based on NCHRP 350, in line with the Standard.
In 2017, Part 1:2015 and Part 2:2017 of the Standard recognised the introduction of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) MASH guidelines.
To encourage installation of MASH crash tested devices, and in line with the changes to the Standard, ASBAP has updated its product submission criteria.
Effective immediately, all submissions received by ASBAP must be in accordance with AASHTO’s MASH guidelines or an equivalence rating to MASH in accordance with AS/NZS3845 Parts 1 and 2.
ASBAP will transition the current suite of accepted road safety barrier systems and devices within the Australasian market to MASH guidelines as follows (unless already done so by product proponents and submitted to the Panel for assessment):
• 31 December 2018 Steel rail barriers and permanent concrete barriers
• 30 June 2019 Terminals
• 31 December 2019 Wire rope safety barriers and crash cushions
• 31 December 2020 Transitions, temporary barriers, Part 2 products.
Product proponents are advised that the Panel will not retest currently accepted products in line with the MASH guidelines as part of the re-rating process.
The transition complements the Austroads Board’s target date of 2020 for the implementation of Safe System.
For more details please refer at https://austroads.com.au/latest-news/barrier-assessment-transitioning-to-mash-guidelines
Resources
AS/NZS 3845.1:2015
AS/NZS 3845.2:2017
