Safety on the Edge

Safe Direction has launched the MASH TL4 compliant RamShield HC Edge barrier system to the Australian market. Safe Direction’s Managing Director, Hayden Wallace, said ‘RamShield HC Edge is a complete engineered solution for applications of road safety barriers at a batter hinge location. The system functions to MASH TL4 performance independent of the embankment slope or compaction.

Traditional applications of barriers at a batter hinge point have utilised extended posts and or soil plates. These measures are limited in their capacity and still highly dependent on the level of embankment compaction and embankment slope. Moreover, there has been no practical means to validate the adequacy of these measures for a specific site application. The practice of non-destructive tests applying threshold deflection limits under a minor load are next to meaningless, Wallace said.

Safe Direction has solved both problems with a complete site validated system. The RamShield HC Edge system incorporates a pin driven back under the road formation that braces the RamShield post at the batter hinge. The adequacy of the system can be confirmed by onsite destructive testing utilising Safe Direction’s THOR post ramming machine to demonstrate the plastic collapse of the RamShield post at the brace point.

Wallace said that RamShield HC Edge is a legitimate alternative to expensive road shoulder widening or for where there are site constraints that are problematic for widening the road.