Nu-Guard® 31 system : extremely quick and easy to install

The winding Rimutaka Hill Road, State Highway 2, is well known to motorists in the region and is the only road route over the Rimutaka Ranges to the Wairarapa Plains in the east. With the summit at 555m above sea level the 14.6km road is often shrouded in mist and closed due to snow, landslips or severe northwest gales. The hill is notorious for road accidents prompting NZTA to focus on the upgrade and improvement of the road barrier on the hill to improve safety.

“We carried out a Crash Reduction Study on the road and targeted the locations that posed the highest risk for motorists,” said Barry Wilkinson, Road Design Engineer for MWH Global.

Six locations were identified requiring either road barrier replacement or removal of batten and wire fences used to contain wild animals, but offering minimal protection for motorists. “There were a few constraints we had to take into account when specifying what would be required,” said Barry. “The banks fall away sharply in places which meant we were able to specify the use of Nu-Guard® 31 Steel Guard Rail System as the NUCOR steel posts require less bank behind them and the Nu-Guard® 31 System offers the highest protection of Test Level 4.”

“We started the job in November and installed 1.2kms of Nu-Guard® 31 Steel Guardrail, 200m of Flexrail with wooden posts, five X-350 Terminal Ends and three Trailing End Terminals,” said Len Woodman, Manager for N & R Askew, the civil construction company appointed to install Nu-Guard® 31. “We completed the job two days before Christmas in less than half the allocated time. CSP’s Nu-Guard® 31 System is extremely quick and easy to install.”

“I have never seen road barrier installed that quickly before,” said Barry. “Normally we would expect 50m of timber post system to be installed per day but Len and his team installed a staggering 180m of the Nu-Guard® 31 System per day. NZTA acknowledged their proficiency for the installation, and his traffic and site management on this project. He did an outstanding job.”