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Photo by Warren Scott Crews with Green Acres Contracting of Scottdale, Pa., on Wednesday installed about 1,800 feet of guardrail along Marquette Avenue in Follansbee, including several sections coated with ZAM, a new coating produced by Wheeling-Nisshin Steel said to be at least three times more resistant to corrosion than previous coatings.

When crews installed about 1,800 feet of guardrail along Marquette Avenue in Follansbee this week, they weren’t just helping to protect drivers traveling to and from the city’s Parkview neighborhood.

They also were helping to showcase a relatively new product produced by a local industry.

Workers from Green Acres Contracting of Scottdale, Pa., installed alternating sections of guardrail, some comprised of standard galvanized steel and some coated with ZAM, a zinc, aluminum and magnesium alloy produced and applied by Wheeling-Nisshin Steel.

Developed by Nisshin Steel, the steel firm’s parent company, ZAM is more resistant to corrosion and scratching because it is nearly three times harder than commonly used galvanized coatings, said Art Bertol, Wheeling-Nisshin general manager for ZAM marketing, who was on hand to observe the guardrail’s installation.

City Manager John DeStefano said all of the guardrail was donated by Wheeling-Nisshin in hopes of showing the West Virginia Division of Highways and others the durability of the coating — which is offered in the U.S. only by Wheeling-Nisshin — compared to that of standard guardrail.

Bertol said the steel firm hopes the state will include ZAM as a specification in guardrail and other projects and that, ultimately, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials will be persuaded to use the product.

Bertol said the coating also may be applied to signs and other steel structures. He added since Wheeling-Nisshin began offering it in 2013, the material has been used on roofs and siding for many barns, silos and other agricultural structures and has many other applications, including the walls for in-ground swimming pools, cooling towers and sound/wind and snow barriers.

DeStefano said the city benefits from the donated guardrail, which would have cost almost $10,000, while possibly helping to increase the customer base for a major local industry. He said the cost for the city was about $400 to have steel coils slit for the guardrail and about $9,800 to have it installed.

Regarding concerns about the stability of the hillside, which overlooks an area of Follansbee Park where a slip caused major damage to a shelter. DeStefano said Garvin, Boward and Beitko, a geotechnical engineering firm in Pittsburgh, has monitored 86 survey points in the area and has not found any significant movement.

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