Nu-Guard® 31 Guardrail System - becomes a temporary barrier choice
Maintaining and future-proofing Auckland’s central arterial SH1 seems to be a never-ending process and a major challenge for contractors as they undertake widening and other projects while maintaining traffic flows on the country’s busiest road. One such project - the Southern Corridor Improvements (SCI) project - began in October last year between Auckland’s growth areas of Manukau and Papakura. Keeping traffic flowing with minimal disruption, while allowing room for main contractor CPB Construction to work on the SCI project, has once again meant the use of the slimline profile of CSP’s Nu-Guard® Steel Post Guardrail system for temporary traffic management duties for the duration of the project.
| The Southern Corridor is a key route from the north, connecting Auckland to the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and the rest of New Zealand. The project is one of a range of improvements being made to address growth and demand within South Auckland by helping to move people and freight more efficiently. The $267 million project is one of four Government accelerated transport projects for the Auckland region and will improve safety, traffic flow and access to the motorway by providing additional lanes on the Southern Motorway. |
Keeping traffic flowing with minimal disruption while allowing room for work to be carried out safely is a key factor when choosing the Nu-Guard®31 Steel Post Guardrail system as a temporary work zone barrier. The Nu-Guard®31 system has already been successfully used as a temporary workzone barrier on the recently completed SH 1 Ellerslie Widening Project. The use of Nu-Guard® 31 is also advantageous as it can be reused in a permanent location when work has been completed.
“The Nu-Guard®31 Steel Post Guardrail system has a very slim profile with no block out required,” says Bruce Stephens, Sales Engineer – Auckland/Northland for CSP. “This allows the CPB Construction teams the maximum possible room to work and they are kept safe by a TL-4 system, if a collision occurs. The other added benefit of using Nu-Guard®31 Steel Post Guardrail, in this type of situation, is that about 50% of the steel posts can be salvaged and reused if the barrier needs to be moved.”
So far approximately 2.5kms of Nu-Guard®31 Steel Post Guardrail has been installed at SCI on the southbound lane leading up to the Takanini interchange with up to 6kms required during the project. The barrier has been installed right up against the lighting columns to allow the lanes to be moved across, providing more room in between the north and south-bound lanes for the construction crew to carry out their work.
It’s early days for the SCI project, which is expected to take about three years in total to complete. This work includes 11km of additional lanes in both directions, an upgrade to the Takanini Interchange, upgrades to 16 existing bridges and a 4.5km shared use pedestrian/cycle path.