Safety performance audit for roadside and median barriers using freeway crash records: Case study in Jiangxi, China

Globally, the Road Safety Audit (RSA) concept has been recognized as an effective tool in examining the crash potential of in-service and future roadways in planning and design stages. As such, there is critical need for a practical tool that focuses on the safety of the existing, as-built, local road facilities. As requested by the World Bank, the RSA process has been developed for this purpose, giving specific recognition to the safety performance of roadside and median barriers for three existing, typical freeways in Jiangxi, China, and to the gathering of design experience for a new RGF project. On top of a routine road safety audit process, a total of 172 roadside crashes are collected, with 74 belonging to single vehicle Run-off-Road crashes, and crash records are analyzed to supplement the qualitative auditing suggestions. The structure and safety performance of the roadside and median barriers in the three freeways reviewed are evaluated and compared with their counterparts in the US barrier system. Several critical issues were identified and improvement suggestions were recommended, including less attention being paid to the roadside Clear Recovery Zone (CRZ), weak barrier structures, un-protected roadside obstacles (i.e. barrier ends, advertisement signs, drainage ditches, etc.), and poor connections or transitions of rails. Based on these observations, detailed pertinent countermeasures for each issue have been suggested in a roadside safety audit report for guiding roadside safety design in the RGF project.