Safety Barriers in Structural and Marine Engineering

Safety regulation and standards have developed intensively since the startup of the petroleum industry in Norway in the early 1970’ties. Prescriptive standards where used in the early days. In the 1980’ties risk analysis and the 10⁻⁴ criteria were introduced, along with accidental loads and the progressive collapse limit state. Since 2002 barriers have been a general part of the safety regulation in Norway. This paper aims at reviewing the development of safety regulation of structures and marine systems in Norway, present the barrier regulation as it is described in the Norwegian regulations, and finally evaluate the relevance of the barrier regulation for structures and marine systems.