Tennessee’s Department of Transportation has decided to replace 1,700 guardrail endings around the state because of safety concerns. The guardrail terminals, a product called X-Lite by Lindsay Corporation, have been involved in at least three fatal accidents since last year.
These impact-absorbing pieces are less than two years old and were slowly replacing another brand — the
Trinity ET-Plus, that had been deemed hazardous. But TDOT spokesperson B.J. Doughty says the X-Lite response has become even more critical. Some drivers have been
impaled when they hit the end of the guardrail, which failed to collapse like a telescope as designed.
“We were seeing enough evidence in the field that it was not performing in the way it was supposed to that we have taken it a step further,” Doughty says.
There are 1,700 X-Lite terminals that need replacing, Doughty says. TDOT is hiring contractors to remove all of them on highways where the speed limit exceeds 45 miles per hour. Each replacement costs about $2,000, Doughty says.
In October, TDOT stopped installing the X-Lite model because of concerns, but didn’t decide to replace them until more recently.
The agency has been under additional scrutiny after
erroneously sending a guardrail repair bill to the family of a 17-year-old who died after a side-impact collision with one of the X-Lite terminals.