RNER REGULATIONS

In France, the RNER decree (National Road Equipment Regulations) sets the performance levels and installation requirements for restraint systems on the national road network.
See the decree of March 2, 2009, concerning the performance and commissioning rules for road restraint systems, and its update of September 25, 2023.

It specifies the minimum performance requirements for permanent road restraint systems (RRS) deployed on standard road sections and on engineering structures.

These devices include:

• Safety barriers and crash attenuators that fall under the scope of the Construction Products Regulation and are subject to a harmonized European standard.
• Safety barriers of the cast-in-place concrete type
• Connections, lane breaks, expansion systems, and end-of-lane sections, classified as construction products but not subject to CE marking due to the absence of harmonized standards.

The application of the devices specified in this decree is not mandatory in the following cases:

• for identical repairs over a length of 200 meters or less;
• for raising operations on existing safety barriers;
• for extending a barrier lane to accommodate off-road accident trajectories over a length of 200 meters or less

The performance requirements set by this decree apply to roads or road sections where the speed limit, established according to the conditions of the Highway Code, is 70 km/h or higher. A temporary reduction of the speed limit by regulatory decree must not lead to a decrease in performance.