India has got its first rolling barrier guardrail set-up under a pilot project in Himachal Pradesh. The barrier has been installed on NH 907A between Nahan and Kumarhatti in a bid to reduce accident fatalities on the mountain roads. The announcement was made by Minister of Road and Highways, Nitin Gadkari on Twitter.
Rolling barrier guardrail barriers is not a very new technology with Australia-based KSI Global first having tested the technology way back in 2014 and a South Korean company ETI sharing details of tests conducted on similar rolling barrier guardrails in 2016. The concept of the rolling barrier guardrail is designed to reduce and deflect the force of impact which in turn will reduce the chances of fatal injuries as against fixed static barriers that take the full force of the impact.
The rotational motion of the individual rollers is designed to lessen the impact force of the vehicle as well as trying to prevent the vehicle from rebounding across lanes of traffic post impact. The pilot project will be a real-world test of how the technology will effect road safety on that section of national highway with Gadkari tweeting that its primary use is to reduce fatalities on mountain roads. If proven successful we could be seeing more of these along other mountainous sections of national highways across the country.
Source: Nitin Gadkari twitter
