Newest Development of Concrete Safety Barriers for Bridges and The Need to Harmonize National Collision Force Regulations

In the past decade vehicle restraint systems became increasingly important as the awareness of consequences of fatalities drew attention to more passive road safety. This is especially true for bridges as accidents on special structures tend to have more serious consequences. Subsequently, we notice a strong trend towards passive road safety as the economic impact and cost of fatalities were analyzed in a broader context. In several studies the huge social costs of accidents are mentioned which amount to more than 1 % of the GDP (130 billion EUR) in Europe 2009. The creation of the harmonized EN 1317 and the redeployment of this harmonized standard via the Construction Products Directive (CPD) lead to safer restraint systems and added economic value by introduction of space limitations via working width. Bridges always played an important role in the