Courses

Road Safety School – Barriers

When a driver leaves the road, a properly designed barrier is what stands between a crash and a fatality.

Registration Info

Click a date below to start your registration.

October 6 - 9, 2026
Fee:
Member Rate - $2100.00
Duration:
4 Days

What You’ll Learn

  • Match barrier systems to specific roadway conditions, traffic patterns, and risk profiles
  • Navigate Canadian standards and regulations governing barrier design and installation
  • Apply installation requirements that determine whether a barrier system performs as designed
  • Develop maintenance programs including inspection protocols, repair criteria, and replacement planning
  • Work through practical barrier scenarios common to Ontario municipalities

Course Description

This course is offered as part of Road Safety School, Good Roads’ four-day training event dedicated to road safety practice in Ontario. Road Safety School brings together municipal professionals from across the province for a shared day of Safe System learning followed by three days of specialized, discipline-specific training.

Road Safety School opens on Tuesday, October 6 with a full-day Safe System Principles Workshop led by Kenn Beer, attended by all participants. You will gain the foundational context for understanding how all the Road Safety School courses support Vision Zero goals and the Safe System approach. That context is central to everything in the three days that follow.

Starting Wednesday, October 7, you move into three days of focused barrier training. This is a relatively new area of formal training in Ontario. Run-off-road and head-on collisions claim lives that could be prevented with better barrier practice, and this course exists to close that gap.

Day 3 includes an exercise in which participants work through a barrier design problem in small groups and present their solutions back to the full group.

Registration covers the full four-day program including continental breakfast, lunch, and refreshments each day.

Course Details

  • Municipal engineers and technicians
  • Transportation planning professionals
  • Public works supervisors
  • Design consultants
  • Construction managers
  • Asset management specialists
  • Anyone responsible for roadway safety infrastructure
  • Barrier performance and selection: matching systems to roadway conditions and risk profiles
  • Canadian standards and regulations: Transport Canada guidelines, provincial and municipal requirements
  • Installation: technical requirements for system performance
  • Maintenance: inspection protocols, repair criteria, and replacement planning
  • Real-world problem solving: practical scenarios from Ontario conditions
  • Temporary barriers: system components and end terminals
  • 2+1 roads: design principles and the Ontario trial
  • Field barrier design exercise and group presentation

No formal prerequisites.

  • Day 3 includes a written exam. Participants who successfully complete the course receive a certificate of completion.
  • Accreditation details to be confirmed. Participants will receive Continuing Education Units (CEUs) and Professional Development Hours (PDHs).

Question:
Is formal training in road safety barriers widely available in Ontario?

Answer:

No. This is a relatively new area of formal training in Ontario, making this one of the few structured professional development opportunities available for barrier design and implementation.

Question:
Does the course cover both rural and urban barrier applications?

Answer:

Yes. The course addresses a range of roadway conditions and contexts applicable to Ontario municipalities of all sizes.

Question:
Is prior experience with barrier systems required?

Answer:

No. The course is designed to build knowledge from the ground up and is relevant to professionals across a range of experience levels.