Find the perfect concrete road barrier supplier? There is only one thing a road barrier must do, separate traffic, protect a work zone, or contain and redirect a vehicle on impact – and it must work every single time, otherwise there’s no partial credit awarded for a barrier that “mostly works.”
If it does, no one knows it.
If it doesn’t, the issue is not with the concept of a concrete barrier, but almost always with the supplier responsible for the design and manufacture of the barrier.
This guide will help you examine a concrete road barrier supplier to ensure that you receive barriers that actually meet the demands of real traffic, rather than those that appear to work well but don’t have been engineered or proven to be as efficient.
When it Comes to Choosing a Supplier, It’s Not Just About the Length and the Price per Metre
When buying, buyers will first compare barrier length, weight and cost per metre. A good place to start, but it leaves out a crucial component of what makes a barrier work when it is hit by a vehicle: how the supplier designs and reinforces the barrier to a recognized containment standard, and how many units in an order are identical to the standard that the manufacturer is producing.
Road barriers are there to catch and correct at one moment and that is all. A supplier that considers barrier manufacturing to be a process that can be certified and performance verified, will design and build for that moment from the beginning. Anyone who doesn’t will sell you a barrier that resembles a real road barrier, but wasn’t designed or tested to function as such in the event of an impact.
Select the Appropriate Type of Road Barrier for Your Project
Knowing the type of barrier that your project needs can be useful prior to comparing suppliers, as containment requirements are very different depending on application, speed of traffic, and volume.
Permanent Median and Lane Divider Barriers
Permanent median barriers are installed on highways and other major roadways in a permanent fashion to physically separate traffic on opposite sides of the road. These require containment performance to match the speed and volume of traffic on the road, and a design that will accommodate permanent and undisturbed installation.
Temporary Work Zone Barriers
Work zone barriers keep workers safe, separate them from traffic and may need to be set up and taken down multiple times during a project. They need to be balanced against being both effective for containment and easy to handle as they are moved far more regularly than permanent barriers and still have to contain, if struck.
Interlocking and Modular Barrier Systems
Interlocking systems join individual units together with a pin, key or shear connector joint, in order to be used in longer runs than there are parts available. They are highly reliant on the connection system; if the system is weak, barriers that are split upon impact burst at the time they are most needed.
Low-Profile and Constrained-Site Barriers
Low-profile barriers are barriers that are designed for sites where it may not be possible to install a standard height barrier due to visibility, sight-line or space restrictions. The containment is achieved in a different geometry from standard containment barriers, and should be matched carefully to the specific traffic speed conditions for which they are rated.
With the category and containment level that you need identified you can then reduce your list of suppliers down to manufacturers who can provide true and proven compliance for that application.
Inquire About Their Design Standard and Crash Test Certification
A serious supplier will be able to answer conclusively which “road safety barrier standard” the units are designed to and crash tested against and state the actual documentation to substantiate their claim. This shouldn’t be taken on a general assurance, because of what the barrier’s supposed to do.
Be specific about the containment level or standard the barrier is rated to meet; ask what testing entity confirmed the containment level or standard; and inquire if they can supply a specific testing certificate for the item you are purchasing. This is one supplier that you will want to work with. Any supplier that cannot provide any documentation, references certification to another product line, or is ambiguous is not the supplier to be trusted with a structure this consequential.
Discuss Their Manufacturing Consistency With the Certified Design
Crash test certification is not applicable to a general concept of a barrier which is similar to the tested barrier. Request to know: How does the supplier make sure that each unit out of the production line matches the exact design dimension, reinforcement and connection detail that had been tested? What is done if any parts of the batch exhibit variation from the original tested design?
If a supplier has a true quality discipline, any variation from the tested design is considered disqualifying for that unit; even if it’s only a slight variation, the barrier won’t have the same performance as the tested barrier because the supplier has no right to claim the barrier has been certified due to its surface appearance. Prior to shipping, query what the inspection process is to ensure that each batch meets the certified specification?
Increase Their Manufacturing Quality Control More Widely
General manufacturing discipline has an impact on the performance of a product, in addition to the certified design. Please enquire about how units are cast, the curing process and curing time, and what quality checks are carried out prior to dispatching units.
Where road barriers are to be used in continuous runs, the reliability of the system is as important as the reliability of any one barrier – a system is as reliable as its weakest link or unit. Ask “what checks ensure that all the components in a large order are the same quality as the tested and certified one?
What Time is It Between Units?
Most road usage applications are based upon units being connected together to be on a continuous road barrier system, and the detail of how the units are connected is critical to the overall performance of the system as a whole as one unit may perform well individually but not perform if impacted and the units separate or become misaligned. Determine how the units are connected, if they are connected as part of the original crash tested design, and what installation tolerance is needed to retain the crash tested performance of the connection.
A supplier that can tell you how their connection system was incorporated directly into the tested and certified design is showing engineering integrity. A vendor that sees the connection as an afterthought, without certification, is leaving a real hole in the system’s actual performance.
Compare the Installation Requirements to the Certified Design
Generally, the criteria for certified containment performance are influenced by the installation of the product (free standing, anchoring and/or minimum run length) during the original crash testing. Questions to ask include what installation conditions the certification is based on, whether that is the installation you intend to use, and what will happen to the certified performance based if there is deviation from these installation conditions.
Even if the physical installation is the same as the one the barrier was tested with, the barrier’s certified performance may not remain the same when it is installed outside the conditions that the barrier was tested under. It is important to verify with the supplier (and, if applicable, the traffic or safety engineer for your project).
Look at Their References and Track Record
Documentation on certification provides information on the barriers that the supplier designed and tested for. Completed projects inform you of what they have actually provided and how reliable they have been. Request examples of similar road barrier projects, specifically projects that have similar conditions—traffic speed and volume—with your project, and how long they have been installed.
Test results are crucial, but a supplier that has a long history of delivering barriers consistent with their certified design is more reliable.
The Following are Some “Red Flags” to Look Out For
Less reliable road barrier suppliers show a few common traits when answering questions about the product they’re selling:
- They are unable or unwilling to provide crash test certification for the product they sell.
- They give fuzzy or changing answers about which containment standard applies to the product.
- They don’t have a clear process to verify the batch consistency of the road barrier with the certified design.
- They price significantly below their certified competitors, with no explanation for the discrepancy.
The warning signs listed above should not be taken lightly, since the road barriers are in place to serve a critical, high consequence event and two or more signs in combination should be enough to cause one to reconsider proceeding.
Connecting the Dots Concrete Road Barrier Supplier
That’s down to ensuring that the concrete road barrier supplier will supply barriers that are truly designed, crash tested, and certified to an approved standard for the traffic in which they are intended to be used, and that the supplier makes the barriers with the discipline that will ensure that the barrier is the same as the barrier that was originally tested.
Do it right, and the barrier does what it’s supposed to: holds where it’s supposed to hold and performs as expected during use when it is needed.
