ROADSKY TRAFFIC SAFETY CORPORATION

Dubai Municipality with UAE Higher Colleges of Technology, Qatar’s Arab Center for Engineering Studies and King Fahd University in KSA have joined a global testing programme of a new fibre glass technology that improve the safety and durability of road guardrails.

Developed by German company Schoeck Bauteile, Schoeck ComBAR is a reinforced fibre glass material that it claims replicates the mechanical characteristics of steel-reinforced concrete, but is much lighter, more resistant to aggressive environments, non-magnetic and does not conduct thermal or electric currents.

The marterial has been undergoing extensive regional tests at the Dubai Municipality, accompanied and evaluated by UAE Higher Colleges of Technology, and at Qatar’s Arab Centre for Engineering Studies, as well as independent tests carried out at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, which have reportedly shown results of tensile strengths far exceeding those officially quoted by Schoeck.

According to Schoeck, testing involves hurtling a 36-tonne trailer truck into a bridge barrier at 80 km/h.

“Corrosion is a clear and present danger in building structures and road guardrails in the region due to the harsh climate and humidity that prevails. Schoeck’s ComBAR has shown time and again that it is ideally suited to the region and we believe that the safety and environmental advantages are starting to speak for themselves,” said Managing Director of Schoeck Middle East Dipl.-Ing. Christoph Spitz.

Schoeck says that all the road guardrails have a high tensile strength of more than 1000 N/mm² and the modulus of elasticity is 60,000 N/mm².