80 | INFRASTRUCTURE
Rural road watch Countryside roads are neglected areas for road safety management, but appropriate barriers can be part of the solution Words | Tobias Schneider, Heintzmann Group, Germany
When talking about the road safety levels of a country, most people first think of the main highways. This is understandable as these highways carry most of the passenger traffic and by far the highest percentage of freight traffic. As a consequence, there are accidents happening on these roads every day, with a few making national news headlines, which pushes the main highways even further into people’s minds. However, accident rates in relation to traffic volume are comparably low on highways. Reasons for this include one-way traffic, broad curves, and smooth up and down gradients. All these characteristics are different on country roads that are built to cover the infrastructural needs of people whose homes and livelihoods are away from the main traffic veins.
A question of responsibility Country roads are often not managed by the general government, but by the state, or even the county or local community. The administrative difference usually results in lower budgets for renewing/maintenance, which is disadvantageous for rural roads in most cases and is apparent in the poorer road conditions. These include the road width, the geometry of curves and slopes, the quality of the road surface, and the
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general lack of attention to road safety. Every country sets its own rules and guidelines to define if, and what type of, passive road safety equipment (e.g. guardrails) is required.
Guardrail requirements The relevant factors to consider for guardrails are containment level and working width class. To reach a certain containment level, two crash tests have to be executed: one with a small passenger car; and one with a standard passenger car (normal containment level), bus, or HGV (high containment level). On rural roads, N2 and H1 are the standard levels in many countries according to European Norm 1317. In water protected areas, for example, the required level can go up to H2. The space requirements at an obstacle define the maximum working width class and thus the chosen restraint system. Frequent obstacles and dangers for vehicle occupants on country roads are steep slopes, trees, rocks, buildings and pylons. Particularly for slopes and trees, special guardrails have been designed
and tested so that there is appropriate protection available despite the limited space conditions beside the roads. In each instance, the obstacle was ‘built’ on the test facility and the system’s performance was considered good enough. One of the systems that has been tested on a steep slope is the Heintzmann Basic Barrier 2.0b developed by SGGT (Safe German Guardrail Technology), part of the Heintzmann Group. The posts were placed
