In June 2025, Austroads released the Standardised Bridge Barrier Design Guidelines, which provide direction on the standardised design of bridge traffic barriers across Australia and New Zealand.
The new guidelines address inconsistencies in current practice and updated the [now superseded] Standardised Bridge Barrier Design guidelines (AP-R445-13) to align with the current standards, including:
- Australian Standard AS/(NZS) 5100: Series 2017– Bridge Design.
- Australian Standard AS/(NZS) 3845: Series 2017 – Road Safety Barrier Systems and Devices.
- American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH).
The process to update the guidelines adopted a comprehensive approach, incorporating an extensive literature review of current and previous guidance, as well as stakeholder consultations. To enhance the robustness of the revision, a finite element analysis (FEA) and a MASH-compliant full crash test of a medium performance barrier were also conducted.
The FEA of the medium barrier proved effective in accurately predicting compliance with crash test requirements during a comprehensive crash test. The crash test assessment, conducted in accordance with MASH (AASHTO 2009), produced results within specified limits.
An overview of this world-first, full-scale crash test is provided below:
World-first bridge barrier crash test
In July 2023, Austroads conducted testing which involved crashing a 36-tonne truck, a sports utility vehicle, and a small passenger car into a medium performance level bridge barrier. This design is the most common type of bridge barrier across Australia and New Zealand. The tests results will confirm if the structural performance of this bridge barrier design meets the requirements of the Australian Standards, and the AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware.
Austroads’ crash test was a world first as it involved a 90 km/h test speed for the articulated truck compared to the 80km/h test speed required for the AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware test.
The AASHTO MASH was published in 2009. It introduced a new way of testing and evaluating safety hardware on US highways. Since 2018, Austroads has progressively transitioned to MASH tested products. No bridge barrier in the world was tested against these modified MASH requirements prior to this crash test.
Equitable testing
Vehicle crash testing typically uses a test dummy that approximates the size and weight of a man. The sports utility vehicle crash test involved using two test dummies – one the weight and size of a small adult woman and the other the size and weight of a small child. This was also world-first test providing data on the potential impacts of high-speed crashes into a bridge barrier for these types of vehicle users.