Southwest Research Institute

Leonard C Meczkowski

Maurice E Bronstad

James H Hatton, Jr

A guardrail terminal for use at the upstream end of a conventional guardrail consisting of a plurality of joined together horizontally extending W-beam guardrails which are layered in a curve away from the traffic side of the guardrail in an upstream direction. An eccentric lever is connected to the upstream end of the terminal for introducing a bending moment on the terminal whereby an impacting vehicle at the upstream end will facilitate buckling of the rails and allow the vehicle to pass behind the terminal instead of being speared or spun around by an end on impact. The rails are supported by break-away supports and the rails are secured to only the first upstream vertical support but are laterally movable relative to the other vertical supports. The lever includes a metal beam connected perpendicular to the upstream end and extends away from the traffic side and a tubular member encloses the first support, the metal beam and the end of the upstream rail.

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Herndon, VA, United States of America

Leonard C Meczkowski