Highway Guardrail
HERMEQ supplies highway guardrail, also known as steel crash barrier or armco barrier, for vehicle protection in parking lots, warehouses, industrial sites and other low-speed traffic areas. The galvanized corrugated beam deflects a vehicle in a light-impact collision and keeps it away from people, buildings and machinery, indoors and outdoors. The guardrail calculator turns the length of a run into a full breakdown of components and pricing. The range covers straight and curved beams, Z-posts and I-beam posts in bolt-down and dig-in versions, corners, flared and rounded end sections, and the bolts that join them.
Highway guardrail beams, posts and end sections
A guardrail run is built from beams, posts and end sections, and the post is the part that sets how much impact the run can take.
Straight guardrail beams
Most of any run is made of straight corrugated guardrail beams, the galvanized rail that holds the line between posts and deflects a vehicle that strikes it. Each beam bolts to the next to form one continuous rail, and the same beam fits Z-posts and I-beam posts in either mounting.
Curved guardrail beams
Where a run follows a curved drive, a turning area or the rounded face of a structure, curved guardrail beams carry the rail around the bend in one smooth line. They come in concave and convex profiles across several radii, bolt to the same posts as straight beams and absorb impact in the same way.
Z-posts
The Z-post is the lighter of the two post profiles, made for pedestrian routes, edge demarcation and parking areas where cars move slowly. Its slimmer section weighs and costs less than an I-beam post and goes in faster, which suits long runs where the impact risk is low. The range has bolt-down Z-posts for paved ground and dig-in Z-posts for soil.
I-beam posts
I-beam posts are the heavier profile and carry the run wherever forklifts or trucks could strike it, in warehouses, yards, depots and truck terminals. They come in three heights, for forklift, car and truck impact zones. Both bolt-down I-beam guardrail posts and dig-in I-beam posts are in the range.
Guardrail corners
Guardrail corners turn a run through a set angle around a building, a column line or a yard boundary. Internal and external 90 degree corners cover right-angle layouts, and corners made to a measured site angle cover turns that are not square. A factory-formed corner keeps the rail continuous where a beam cut and bent on site would leave a weak joint.
Flared and rounded end sections
Every open end of a run takes an end section, because a bare beam end is a hazard to drivers and pedestrians alike. Flared fish tail end sections go where vehicles approach the end of a run, and their flare deflects a low-angle strike. Rounded pedestrian end sections close a run at doorways, walkways and parking lots, where people pass close enough to catch clothing or skin on an exposed edge.
Bolt-down or dig-in guardrail posts
The ground under the run decides the mounting and the traffic decides the post profile, so the two choices are made separately. Bolt-down posts stand on a base plate fixed to the surface with floor anchor bolts, and they go on concrete slabs, asphalt and paved yards, indoors, and on retrofit jobs where breaking out the surface or digging next to a building is not possible. Dig-in posts are set in a dug hole or trench and held with compacted fill or post-setting concrete, and they belong where the run crosses soil, gravel or a planted margin. Because every post takes the same beams and bolts, one run can change from bolt-down to dig-in where it leaves the paving.
Before drilling a slab, confirm its thickness and the position of any buried cables, pipes or in-floor heating, and before digging outdoors, have underground utilities located and marked. Guardrail is a fixed installation. For protection that moves with the work, such as a lane closure or a temporary work zone, concrete barriers and water filled barriers stand on the surface without fixings.
Steel guardrail for parking lots, docks and yards
Steel guardrail protects buildings, equipment and people wherever vehicles move at low speed on private ground, and each setting changes the post and end section it needs.
Parking lots
In a parking lot the rail takes slow car impacts and marks the edge of the lot, a drive aisle or a landscaped bed. Z-posts or car-height I-beam posts suit most lots, bolted to asphalt or dug into planted margins, and rounded ends belong wherever shoppers or staff walk past the end of a run.
Warehouses and loading docks
Inside a warehouse the rail keeps forklifts off racking ends, columns, doors, offices and marked walkways, and at the dock it guards doors and equipment in the loading zone. Forklift-height I-beam posts bolted to the slab are the usual specification, because there is nowhere to dig.
Yards, depots and truck terminals
Yards and transport terminals put trucks and loaded trailers against the rail, so truck-height I-beam posts carry the run. Flared fish tail ends face the traffic at each exposed end, and long boundary runs along an unpaved yard edge are usually dug in.
Walkways and building perimeters
Along a shared route the rail separates people from vehicles, and around a building it keeps vehicles off walls, entrances, meters and utility cabinets. Corners wrap the base of the building, and rounded ends close the run where the walkway meets a door or a crossing.
Guardrail height, run layout and galvanized finish
Three site checks decide the rest of the order.
Vehicles using the area
Size the post profile and height to the heaviest vehicle that will strike the run, even if it passes only a few times a day, and set the height so the beam meets that vehicle at bumper or fork level. On a mixed site, one run can change from I-beam posts along the truck route to Z-posts where it turns along the pedestrian edge.
Layout of the run
Measure the run on site before ordering: its full length, every change of direction, and the angle or radius at each one. A square turn takes a 90 degree corner, internal or external according to the side the traffic is on, a sweeping bend takes curved beams made to that radius, and an angle that is neither takes a corner made to order. Concave beams curve inward and convex beams curve outward, and the two are not interchangeable, so mark on the plan which side of the bend the vehicles travel before choosing the profile.
Finish and exposure
The straight beams, Z-posts, bolt-down I-beam posts and fish tail ends are galvanized to ASTM A123, the US standard for hot-dip zinc coatings on fabricated steel. The zinc coating protects the steel in wet and dusty conditions without painting, so the same parts go into an indoor warehouse or an open yard.
Guardrail bolts, anchors and the run calculator
Bolts and anchors are sold separately from beams and posts, and the guardrail calculator counts them with the rest of the run and compares a bolt-down build with a dig-in build side by side.
Post bolts
Guardrail post bolts fix the beam to each post, one bolt per post with washers supplied, and they hold the beam in line on the post when a vehicle strikes the rail.
Lap bolts
Lap bolts join the overlapping ends of beams and fix corners and end sections into the run. Count a set for every beam joint, corner and end section on the plan.
Floor anchor bolts
Floor anchor bolts hold the base plate of each bolt-down post to concrete, and each post takes several, so the count is a multiple of the bolt-down posts in the run. Dig-in posts need none.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. This range is supplied for private sites such as parking lots, warehouses, yards, depots and building perimeters where vehicles move at low speed. Guardrail on public roads and highways is specified by the transportation agency that owns the road, to that agency's own crash-test requirements.
Armco barrier is the name many buyers use for corrugated steel guardrail, taken from a brand name that became the common term. It is the same product as highway style guardrail or W-beam guardrail: a galvanized corrugated steel beam bolted to posts. Steel crash barrier and guardrail barrier are other names for it.
The cost per foot of a run depends on the post profile, the mounting method and the number of corners, curves and end sections it needs. A long straight run spreads the cost of its two end sections over more feet, so it usually costs less per foot than a short run with corners. The guardrail calculator prices a complete run from its length and layout, hardware included.
A general contractor or facilities crew with standard tools can install it, because every part bolts together. Bolt-down posts need a hammer drill to set the floor anchor bolts, and dig-in posts need holes or a trench dug to depth and fill or concrete to set them. Set out the line with string, fix the posts first, hang the beams on loosely fitted bolts and tighten the run once the corners and ends are in place.
Yes. The run is bolted together, so an end section can be removed and the line extended with more beams and posts, or a length taken out and rerouted around a new door, bay or column. A beam or post bent in a strike is unbolted and replaced on its own, without rebuilding the rest of the run.