Bridges

Consistency in the design of traffic barriers for bridges has been identified as a major issue in current practice throughout Australia and New Zealand. The need for standard solutions was recognised by road jurisdictions, consultants and contractors during the Austroads 6th Bridge Conference Workshop on bridge barriers, held in 2006. The main areas of concern are the determination of appropriate barrier performance levels, structural design criteria, the lack of standard barrier design details, guidance on retrofitting existing bridge barriers, bridge approach barriers and overpass bridge support protection. A project ‘Standardised Bridge Barrier Designs’ funded by Austroads was undertaken with the aim to develop a set of guidelines to assist bridge designers, contractors and jurisdictions to provide consistency and cost savings in the selection and development of relevant bridge barriers throughout Australia and New Zealand. This project builds on, and provides input to, the Australian Bridge Design Standard AS 5100 (2007), currently under review.The project forms part of the current review of AS 5100 (2007) and identifies key areas of future work to be undertaken after AS 5100 has been published. These areas include the detailed design and specification of agreed standard barrier types and a potential testing program to verify actual in-service performance of the standard bridge barrier designs.This paper discusses the process related to the development of the guidelines, as well as the findings of the project.