Safety on Regional Roads

Wire Rope Safety Barrier on the roadside of the Dukes Highway

Wire Rope Safety Barrier in the median on Victor Harbor Road

Wire Rope Safety Barriers (WRSB) are designed to absorb crash energy with the aim of reducing crash severity. They are effective for absorbing energy of a collision and reducing the injury severity for car occupants. WRSB can be installed in the median to prevent head-on crashes, or on the roadside to protect road users from roadside hazards.

Shoulder sealing treatment

Shoulder sealing improves the safety of regional roads by providing a width of seal beyond the edge line. It allows drivers greater opportunity to recover safely if they drift from the travel lane. A common cause of head on and run off-road crashes on regional roads is running off the sealed pavement on to the unsealed shoulder, then over-correcting steering to the right or braking too hard.

Shoulder sealing at regional Black Spot sites has demonstrated a 65% reduction in crashes. Across the network more generally, shoulder sealing has been shown to reduce crashes by 40%.

W-Beam Guard Fence on Mount Lofty Summit Road

A guard fence is designed to reduce crash severity by absorbing the energy of the crash, like a Wire Rope Safety Barrier (WRSB). W-Beam Guard Fence has less deflection than WRSB and can be installed on roads where the hazards are closer to the travelling lane. As such, it is often installed on winding roads where roadside hazards are near the edge of the road.

Motorcycle rub rail

Traditional guard fence can pose a safety hazard to motorcycle riders and their passengers. Support posts concentrate the forces of a crash, which has the potential to lead to serious injury. Motorcyclists are vulnerable to collisions on bends and curves, where the stability of the motorcycle is at stake. Motorcyclist safety is improved by using motorcycle protection at high-risk locations on popular motorcycle routes, such as in the Adelaide Hills. The motorcycle rub rail treatment is designed to absorb energy during impact and deflect a rider away from the impact point.

Wide Centreline Treatment on the Dukes Highway

Wide Centreline Treatments comprise two parallel painted lines which separate oncoming traffic more than standard line marking. The width between the lines is typically 1 m. It increases the separation of vehicles with little effect on travel speeds. Where geometric constraints do not allow for the 1-metre width, narrower wide centreline treatments can still provide benefit and be managed on a risk basis. They are used on high-volume, high-speed rural roads. By increasing the separation between traffic flows and allowing extra recovery room, they reduce the risk of crashes of all types, particularly head-on crashes.

Wide Centreline Treatments are considered Safe Systems supporting treatments. They create the space for a primary treatment, median wire rope safety barriers, to be installed in the future.