3 minute read
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 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
only 30cm in front of the beginning of the steep slope during the crash test. Nevertheless, the performance class of this system is N2-W3-A. Start and end points can be secured by the appropriate start and end terminal, which performs P2 x1/y1/ z1 ASI A and is called the Heintzmann Basic Barrier Terminal. Alternatively, there is a more aesthetic guardrail available, where all steel parts are covered by timber. This product is the Nature-Rail quick joint and it performs N2-W5-A.
Single obstacle protection
For protection of and from trees as well as other single obstacles, a standard steel barrier, ESP BOS, was tested by German steel officials successfully. It was reinforced by box beams installed directly in front of the obstacles in addition to the W-beams on the front side.
On country roads in hilly areas, there are a lot of motorcyclists riding around. For bikers, the guardrail posts represent a potential danger in the event of a crash. To offer protection from them, a softer, second beam can be added underneath the guardrail beam. This combination is also crash tested to N2 level.
Another issue can be elderly road safety equipment that does not comply with the current guidelines anymore. The reason for this over-aging is that in many countries, road safety systems only have to be replaced when a road is enlarged or renewed. The same is true for placing road equipment at locations where no restraint system has been installed so far. The aim must be to keep equipment up-to-date and include product innovations to ensure there are the same safety levels on rural roads as there are on highways. n
