Data Overview: Steel and Infrastructure

Multi-lane highway intersection with bridges and overpasses under a cloudy sky.

May 20, 2026 | Reading time: 3 minutes

Steel supports our roads, railways, and wind turbines—and packs a surprising amount of weight. Here are some figures that set the standard. And a look at a microstructure that looks like snow.

White car on country road with mountain panorama and sun in the background.

1,400t

steel for 20 kilometers of road: that’s how much Autobahn Westfalen recently used to install new guardrails on the A42. A single kilometer of guardrail weighs about 70 tons — including the rails, posts, spacers, and fasteners. A single average guardrail section weighs 45 kilograms.

500 to 600 t

steel is used in a 5-megawatt wind turbine — in the turbine, tower, and foundation.

Wind turbines in hilly landscape with sun rays in the sky.

Railway platform with tracks and waiting people in the background.

≈39,000

is the current length of Germany's railway network — it is made entirely of steel.

Did you know that ...

… the microstructure of steel looks like snow?

Steel is not a homogeneous material; its structure resembles that of snow. The material has a crystalline structure, with its atoms arranged in lattice patterns. Although steel appears solid and smooth on the outside, there are tiny gaps and impurities within it. In this respect, too, it resembles a snowball.