Patent ID: 7832713

Claim:
A guard rail spacer block for attaching a guard rail to a post, said spacer block comprising: a front face for cooperatively engaging said post; a rear face for cooperatively engaging said guard rail; upper and lower cylindrical sections disposed at spaced apart upper and lower ends of said spacer block, respectively, and interconnected by a pair of spaced apart leg portions, a cavity being defined within each said cylindrical section, said cylindrical sections and said leg portions each extending from one to the other of said front and rear faces and defining an undulating outer circumferential surface of said spacer block; a cylindrical enlargement disposed in each said leg portion, said cylindrical enlargements extending from one to the other of said front and rear faces with each cylindrical enlargement providing a through hole for a bolt to fasten said guard rail to said post; an engagement mechanism comprising a lug coupled to an upper end of said upper cylindrical section, said lug extending from said rear face of said spacer block for engaging said post and said lug including at least two spaced part fingers coupled proximate a distal end of said lug, the fingers extending from a bottom surface of said lug and forming a gap between said fingers and said rear face of said spacer block, the gap between said fingers operable to engage respective sides of a web of an I-beam support post and the gap between said fingers and said rear face of said spacer block operable to engage respective sides of a flange of the I-beam support post; an alignment mechanism comprising at least one pair of lugs coupled to and extending from said rear face of at least one of said upper and lower cylindrical sections, respectively, and disposed at opposing diametric positions of said at least one cylindrical section for maintaining lateral alignment of said spacer block on said post; and wherein said spacer block is composed of a polymeric material.