Bridge & Culvert Barriers
Shielding the Edge of an Elevated Structure
RAMSHIELD® is Australia's leading manufacturer of Guardrails & Road Safety Barriers
Bridge & Culvert Barriers
Unlike road safety barriers that feature posts driven into the ground, a bridge or culvert barrier is specifically evaluated for installation on the edge of an elevated structure. Impact performance should consider the behaviour of the test vehicle as the barrier deflects beyond the elevated structure and any potential damage caused to the bridge or culvert following a vehicle impact.
Bridge & Culvert Barrier Products
CrocGuard
CrocGuard® is a revolutionary bridge & culvert barrier spanning up to 16m between abutment posts. Featuring a unique composite design comprising external thrie-beam rails that encases a concrete core, the system transfers impact loads to the posts at each abutment.
Hammer Beam
HammerBeam™ combines the strength of thrie-beam guardrail with the yielding behaviour of the RamShield® W-Beam post for longitudinal barrier installations along the edge of elevated structures such as culverts or bridges.
VGAN 400
VGAN 400 is a MASH TL4 compliant, modular barrier designed for installation along the edges of bridges and elevated concrete structures. Featuring a triple rail design, VGAN 400 is manufactured from lightweight, special grade aluminium providing safe containment and redirection of high-energy vehicle impacts.
Bridge & Culvert FAQ’s
What is a culvert?
A culvert is a structure that channels water underneath a roadway.
What are the potential problems with traditional barrier designs?
Rigid post designs are typically limited in strength to the capacity of the anchor bolts to absorb vehicle impact loads. Once the anchors reach capacity, their failure often causes significant damage to the concrete structure. Repair of these damaged systems is problematic, and the life span of the structure may be comprised as steel reinforcement becomes damaged or exposed to atmospheric contaminants and water.
What are the advantages of Safe Direction Bridge & Culvert Barriers?
The range of Safe Direction bridge & culvert barriers are specifically crash tested on the edge of an elevated structure to thoroughly elevate the dynamic interaction between the errant vehicle and barrier.
In addition, the Safe Direction designs prevent damage to the elevated structure, an important design consideration for asset owners.
Are the Safe Direction Bridge & Culvert Barriers MASH compliant?
Yes, the range of Safe Direction Bridge & Culvert Barriers are full-scale crash tested to evaluate compliance with MASH.
The MASH specification is an update to and supersedes NCHRP Report 350 for the purposes of evaluating new safety hardware devices.
MASH presents uniform guidelines for crash testing permanent and temporary highway safety features and recommends evaluation criteria to assess test results.
MASH considers real-life crash data, changes to the vehicle fleet and in-service performance in developing evaluation criteria.
