MASH MEETS WIRE
ROPE SAFETY
FOLLOWING AUSTROADS’ MASH TRANSITION OF THE CURRENT SUITE OF WIRE ROPE SAFETY BARRIERS ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE LOOKS AT OTHER INDICATORS AND INITIATIVES WORKING TO IMPROVE ROAD SAFETY.
O
ver the past two years the eligibility for product submissions to the Austroads Safety Barrier Assessment Panel (ASBAP) has been evolving. Since the introduction of the Australian New Zealand Standard 3845, the standard
has used the National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 350 (NCHRP 350) as a guideline to assess safety barriers, and the Austroads Panel has reviewed products based on the report. In 2017, two sections of the standard changed to use the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Official’s, Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware
(MASH) guidelines as the basis for crash testing. The ASBAP has now updated its product submissions criteria and updated the current suite of accepted road safety barrier systems and devices to reflect this. Since April 2018, all submissions received by ASBAP must meet MASH guidelines, or an equivalent, in line with the Australian and New Zealand standards 3845 Parts 1 and 2. The Austroads Panel is currently working to transition the suite of temporary road safety barrier systems, transitions and part 2 products in the Australian and New Zealand market to MASH.
The Towards Zero website states flexible safety barriers are a proven treatment to save lives. 46
ROADS NOVEMBER 2020
