Why choose corrugated steel beam guardrail?

Guardrails are necessary for ensuring safety when constructing roads, designing municipal engineering projects, and industrial areas. They help minimize the losses incurred during accidents by ensuring vehicles and people do not cross the boundaries set.  Among the many types of guardrails available, the corrugated steel beam guardrails are many people’s top pick.  However, not all project managers understand the reasons for corrugated steel beam guardrails.  In this blog, we will discuss the primary benefits of the corrugated steel beam guardrails and the reasons why they are the best pick in terms of safety, durability, and practicality. This will help you make the right decision for your project.  

Advantage 1: Outstanding Impact Resistance for Maximum Safety  

One of the main attributes of the corrugated steel beam guardrails is safety.  Their design and the material used in fabricating the guardrails helps keep the roads and work sites safe.  The guardrails are made of high-strength steel plates and once they are formed into the corrugated structure, the guardrail captures and distributes the energy of a vehicle colliding with it.

Comparing fixed concrete guardrails to the flexibly designed corrugated steel beam guardrails, the latter implement features designed to lessen the blow of colliding traffic. For instance, a small vehicle is able to strike a steel beam guardrail at a highway speeds, and the beam guardrail will first bend, and then deflect the rest of the destructive force to the vehicle. This prevents the vehicle from leaving the highway and rolling over, all the while cushioning the blow to the guardrail. This pliable structure serves as an impact ready protective device, and is a prominent safety feature of the device. 

Advantage 2:  Maintenance Friendly  Permeable Durable Steel

Designed to last, and reducing maintenance, permeable durable steel pose another safety feature for maintaining decreased severity of the attacking vehicle's damages. Most corrugated steel beam guardrails, and in general, steel guardrails, are designed using a permeable durable steel design. This technique is performed using a hypodermic technique, with the outer layer of the gated steel core permeable to water, and the inner core containing water, in a pressurized manner. This maintains steel self-cleaning features as the water trapped in the inner core will turn to vapor, and the outer layer of the gated steel will perfuse keeping spaced closed. This way, the steel trap corrosive elements.

Due to characteristics inherent to corrugated steel beam guardrails, they can withstand extremely corrosive environments like the coast or areas of high humidity like the mountains. Compared to wooden guardrails which rot, or rustic steel ones, a steel guardrail properly treated can last 15 to 20 years with little to no major corrosion. This means the guardrail will truly cost you little in the long run, since you will not need to replace, restore, or replace it almost assiduously.

Advantage 3: Lightweight Structure with Easy Installation and Easy Transport  

Being anchors of also construction projects, the necessary and sufficient condition for guardrails to add civilization [sic] to bars and construction projects to offer a streamline road, with the consequent savings in road charge, the steel guards with slabs can be made without the necessity for heavy road construction. Much of the cost and weight of road construction is due to the tools, machinery, and also the guardrail made of heavy concrete. Compared to this, steel corrugated guardrails can be handled 2-3 workers for even heavy pieces 30-50 kg. with simple tools, the 4-6 meters long sections can be carried and stacked. This will streamline not only the time for transport but the cost also.

As an illustration, during a road reconstruction project in a rural area, a team with limited construction machinery was still able to cut project time by 30%. Why?  They incorporated an easily portable construction material, the corrugated steel beam guardrail, into the design. Instead of concrete guardrails, these portable guardrails can be efficiently designed, installed, and transported to remote construction areas.

Advantage 4:  Flexible Adaptability to Various Terrain and Road Types  

The wide range of terrain and road types complemented by the corrugated steel beam guardrail serves to enhance its versatility and practicality.  The guardrail can be reshaped and modified to mimic the curvature of the road.  It can be a straight highway, a steeply curved mountain road, or a ramp with a slope and still closely contour to the road shape and maintain structural stability. Furthermore, a range of specifications can be incorporated in design to enhance versatility in use.  For instance, the guardrail can be made higher for use on highways and to prevent large vehicles from crossing and lower for urban residential roads to protect pedestrians.

Unlike fixed concrete guardrails, which are virtually impossible to modify when dimensions change, corrugated steel beam guardrails can adapt to almost any project requirements allowing for more flexibility and versatility for road and site safety needs.

Advantage 5: Low Maintenance Requirements to Reduce Post-Project Burden  

Choosing corrugated steel beam guardrails translates to less maintenance activity required which therefore decreases the burden of post-project management. As discussed, the durability and corrosion resistance of the corrugated steel beam guardrails means frequent and costly repairs are avoided. More localized repairs can be done if minor damage occurs such as slight deformation from impact. Since the modular design of the corrugated steel beam guardrails allows separate damaged pieces to be removed and replaced in minutes, the time and effort required are minimal, as the entire guardrail does not need to be replaced. In contrast, concrete guardrails are more time and costly effective to repairs and maintenance because they are demolished and replaced in portions. For maintenance management or project sponsors, the steel beam guardrails means less maintenance  in terms of time and costs, more for other priorities.  

Conclusion  

In short, the reasons to select corrugated steel beam guardrails are a result of the several benefits they have, impact resistance, strong corrosion resistance, easy installation and transport, flexibility to adapt and the lowest maintenance of any option.

Traveling along highways, urban roads, rural roads, or at industrial sites, people can rely on the cost and efficiency benefits of a project protected with a corrugated steel beam guardrail. If you have a project that needs a cost-efficient and high performance solution, then the corrugated steel beam guardrail is the best option. Check out https://www.metalguardrails.com/ for more information on quality corrugated steel beam guardrails and project specific custom solutions to learn about our industry solutions.