InfraStructures - May 2013 - Acrow’s 700XS® Panel Bridging System Offers Advanced Features to Meet Ongoing Demand for Highway Safety - Canada's National Equipment Magazine - Le Magazine d'Équipement National au Canada

Acrow’s 700XS® Panel Bridging System Offers Advanced Features to Meet Ongoing Demand for Highway Safety

Acrow Bridge offers advanced transportation safety features in its flagship 700XS® panels for permanent, temporary and emergency modular steel bridging. These features address the continual demand for technological enhancements regarding driver safety, especially on multi-lane, high-speed highways.

More than 30,000 people die every year in vehicle accidents on U.S. highways, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The Acrow 700XS Panel Bridge, designed to readily accommodate customers’ specific needs in length, width and strength, offers key safety enhancements, including:

Flat steel deck technology – Unlike alternative open grid systems, the Acrow deck unit is a flat solid surface onto which Acrow applies an anti-skid aggregate coating. The aggregate driving surface offers better and safer traction than asphalt. In all weather conditions, the Acrow driving surface has been found to provide a significantly safer and less slippery surface than other flat driving surfaces that use checker, diamond or Durbar patterned steel plates.*
Crash barrier system – Acrow bridges can be easily installed with optional steel railings. These crash barriers are built to deflect a Category 4 crash impact of approximately 25 t from a large tractor trailer. This type of crash rail system is approved by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration for use on high-speed Interstate Highway applications, which require the strongest and most robust crash rails to protect motorists.

“At Acrow, we approach bridging as more than just an assembly of steel components, but as a vital way to connect people and their communities,” said Bill Killeen, president and CEO of Acrow Bridge. “That’s why we take transportation safety very seriously and use state-of-the-art steel bridging technology in all of our products to address this issue.”

Source: Acrow Corporation

* Based on tests conducted by Lehigh University