CDOT Completes Inspection of More Than 42,000 Guardrails

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An inspection of the more than 40,000 roadway guardrails throughout the state is now complete. The investigation was prompted by safety concerns.

CDOT uses two different manufacturers for guardrail materials. When both are used to create one guardrail instead of keeping each manufacturer specific, the safety measure can malfunction.

CDOT spokeswoman Amy Ford says the agency identified the problem after a June accident that resulted in serious injury due to the issue.

"We thought 'Gosh there may be others,'" she says. "So we started looking at others just on that roadway alone, and realized that there were enough that we needed to do a statewide inventory on all 42,000 of our guardrails to ensure that we knew if there were any incompatible and mismatched pieces."

CDOT has identified more than 300 incompatible installations. Ford says more than 50 of those are in southern Colorado.

She says they expect to have most guardrail replacements completed by the end of the year.