Salvaged and/or re-galvanized guardrail on construction projects

MnDOT does on occasion salvage existing guardrail and reinstall it in lieu of installing new guardrail. However, MnDOT does not re-galvanize existing guardrail for reuse.

Under what circumstances will the state agency authorize its use? – Existing guardrail is visually inspected and if no rust, bends, kinks, or tears are observed it can be salvaged and reinstalled.

How long has the state agency allowed the use of salvaged and/or re-galvanized guardrail? – The state has had pay items for salvaging and reinstalling guardrail since the inception of its current pay item database, which was developed in 1991. It is estimated that these pay items have been around for at least 30 years.

How is salvaged and/or re-galvanized guardrail bid in a project? – Salvaged guardrail is bid on their projects using the following pay items per pay item list at the given website.

2104.521/00218 SALVAGE GUARD RAIL-CABLE LIN FT
2104.521/00219 SALVAGE GUARD RAIL LIN FT
2104.521/00220 SALVAGE GUARD RAIL-PLATE BEAM LIN FT
2104.521/00222 SALVAGE GUARD RAIL-BOX BEAM LIN FT
2554.603/00022 INSTALL GUARDRAIL LIN FT
2554.603/00025 INSTALL 3-CABLE GUARDRAIL LIN FT
2554.603/00026 INSTALL STEEL BOX BEAM LIN FT

How is it documented that using salvaged and/or re-galvanized guardrail will result in significant savings? – Documentation that salvaging existing guardrail will result in a savings typically consists of hand calculations completed by the project design team, which are then placed in the project’s design folders.