Life-Cycle Cost Analyses for Road Barriers – Example of a Swedish research

The initial cost for road barriers is a crucial factor affecting the selection of barrier type. Life-cycle costs for barriers are seldom considered when selecting barrier types. This fact could be due to limited information regarding maintenance costs which obstruct an adequate consideration of maintenance aspects during the road planning and design process. Another problem regarding calculating life-cycle costs, when selecting road barriers, is the limited information available regarding costs for injuries associated with barrier collisions.
This analysis presents a study aimed at implementing and evaluating an approach for analysing lifecycle costs for road barriers under consideration of repair, maintenance and injury aspects.