Renovation of guide rails technically and economically feasible, with environmental gains

The renovation of guide rails (guard rails) can be put into practice in a responsible manner. Renovating and reusing gives significant environmental benefits, with environmental cost savings of up to 70 percent. In addition, renovation is cheaper than producing new and fits within the strict safety requirements that apply to guard rails. This appears to be an exploration by Rijkswaterstaat, organizational consulting firms TwynstraGudde and LBPSight, contractors involved, suppliers of guide rails and galvanizing companies.

Making guide rails circular is one of the ways for Rijkswaterstaat to work circularly by 2030 and thus use as few primary raw materials as possible. The exploration of circular guide rails has looked at the entire renovation chain, whereby used guide rails are given a next life by disassembling, cleaning, dezincing and re-galvanizing the rail before being reinstalled along the road.

Shared image

As independent parties, TwynstraGudde and LBPSight guided the process around the exploration, so that all interests were weighed up and everyone could contribute from their own expertise. This created a shared picture of the business case and all chain parties expressed their commitment. 'With a working group of contractors, galvanizers, a renovation company and suppliers, we had intensive discussions to examine all aspects of renovation. This enabled us to establish together that it is technically and economically feasible. Thanks to an open attitude and enthusiasm from everyone, we succeeded. Now we are moving forward together to set up the validation project. Renovation of guide rails is logical but does not come about by itself,' says Henk Senhorst, project manager from Rijkswaterstaat.

Validation Project

On the one hand, the validation project aims to gain knowledge and experience of technical and organizational aspects of the renovation chain together with the chain parties. On the other hand, it aims to demonstrate that the renovation chain is the choice for the future on which the chain parties will focus. Meanwhile, a major maintenance project of a national highway has been selected with which the design of the renovation chain will be validated in execution in late 2020 and early 2021.

Parties involved

The following parties are involved and endorse working with reused guide rails: Rijkswaterstaat, Bouwend Nederland, BAM, Berm Beveiliging Nederland, Heijmans, Zinkinfo, Arosso, Laura Metaal, SafeRoad, Steel Constructions, and Van Doorn Geldermalsen.