Safety on the road is important. If a vehicle is suddenly unable to stay on course, drivers, passengers, and pedestrians need to rely on structures that will help keep them safe. A guardrail system is one such structure that can make the roads safer and decrease the impact of a car crash.
A highly important structure like the guardrail deserves to be made with the highest quality materials. Investing in the top guardrail systems can make the difference between safety and danger.
What Is a Guardrail System?
A guardrail is a safety barrier that can shield a driver whose vehicle has left the road. By forming a barrier at the side of the road, a guardrail can:
- Guide a vehicle to get back to the road
- Slow the vehicle down to a complete stop
- Slow the vehicle down and let it proceed past the guardrail
According to the US Department of Transportation, there are two key components to a guardrail:
- End terminal – The starting point of the guardrail. It can absorb the energy of a vehicle’s impact in the event of a collision.
- Guardrail face – The length of the guardrail extends from the end terminal alongside the road. It aims to redirect the vehicle back onto the road.
Guardrails function as a system. This includes the guardrail, the posts, the soil where the guardrail is installed, the connection of the guardrail to the posts, the end terminal, and the anchoring system at the end terminal. Together, they create a safer environment for the people around them.
Where Do People Use Guardrails?
While guardrails are often seen on highways and roads, they can also used in other locations, such as warehouses and parking lots.
- Highways and roads – These guardrails help guide vehicles to stay on the road.
- Warehouses – These guardrails protect warehouse workers by creating boundaries between forklifts and pedestrians, putting a barrier around sensitive or volatile equipment, and preventing crashes.
- Parking lots – These guardrails help cars park properly without damaging the parking lot’s infrastructure. They also help protect pedestrians in the lot.
What are Guardrails Made Of?
Because of the tough nature of their work, guardrails need to be strong and durable. Steel is the ideal material to create guardrails because they are tough, load-bearing, and weatherproof.
The most popular design for a standard guardrail is the W-Beam. It is named such because of the guardrail’s look; the cross-sectional design forms a wave-like shape that looks like the letter W itself.
W-beam guardrails are semi-rigid barriers that may flex in the event of vehicle impact. It can absorb the impact of a crash, helping reduce the risk of injury to the passengers while also limiting the damage to the vehicle.
Introducing Metalink’s ToughGuard, a High-Quality Guardrail System
METALINK, one of the country’s top roof and wall solutions providers, also specializes in high-quality steel products for multiple uses.
TOUGHGARD is the brand’s long-span, galvanized Steel Barrier System that is perfect for guardrail use. TOUGHGARD protects run-off-road vehicle accidents and helps reduce highway fatalities. It can also help deflect a vehicle back to the road or slow it down to a stop in case of accidents or road hazards.
With over 20 years of experience in the construction materials sector, you can rest assured that METALINK’s guardrail system is developed with the same high standards the company applies to the rest of its products and services. TOUGHGARD is carefully manufactured to ensure long protection against corrosion.
Guardrails are an important part of many structures, whether it’s the open highway, the wide parking lot, or the ever-busy warehouse. Their ability to protect people from danger and vehicles from damage makes them a necessity in infrastructure planning. It’s only right that organizations invest in the top guardrail systems to ensure that their infrastructure puts everybody’s safety as a priority.
