Concrete safety barriers on motorways

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Wed 23 Mar 2011 15:40
Concrete safety barriers on motorways - mikem004

On the M1 south of Leeds they are replacing the existing wire safety barriers with concrete walls! It's not an accident black spot to my knowledge...

www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/29045.aspx

Surely this isn't a safety improvement?

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Wed 23 Mar 2011 15:47
Concrete safety barriers on motorways - davmal
The new concrete barriers replace the older style steel ones. It's cheaper and safer for small car collisions. The barrier is a containment system.
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Wed 23 Mar 2011 15:52
Concrete safety barriers on motorways - turbo11

They have concrete barriers on the M25 and they have had them in some European countries for decades. They help stop vehicles (particularly HGV's)penetrating the armco/ or wire barriers and crossing over to the opposite carriageway. Even if you impact them harder than armco, you still end up going in the same general direction.

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Wed 23 Mar 2011 15:58
Concrete safety barriers on motorways - mikem004

Yes, it seems they are to stop "crossover" accidents by trucks.

They take a long time to install, though!

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Wed 23 Mar 2011 16:56
Concrete safety barriers on motorways - colinh
But once installed they need less lane closures to repair them.

Further they are motor-cyclist friendly compared to the guillotine effect of the single-rail Armco. Most of the Spanish Armco barriers on the outside of bends are having to be retro-fixed with a lower plate to prevent slide-under accidents.
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Thu 24 Mar 2011 07:31
Concrete safety barriers on motorways - Collos25

I first saw these on new motorways in Sau Paulo Metro one was over 100miles long one of the downsides to it was that it stopped wild animals traversing the road going along their normal paths and making it a journey of no return because most got killed by the night traffic shame really,here in Germany they tend to built tunnels and bridges for animals to cross the autobahns.

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Thu 24 Mar 2011 07:39
Concrete safety barriers on motorways - jc2

Still plenty of stretched cable ones about tho'-personally I prefer a good solid hedge-blocks out the headlights.Tho' concrete helps with that.

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Thu 24 Mar 2011 13:18
Concrete safety barriers on motorways - euro driver

On the M1 south of Leeds they are replacing the existing wire safety barriers with concrete walls! It's not an accident black spot to my knowledge...

www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/29045.aspx

Surely this isn't a safety improvement?

I would guess this is a routine replacement.

If I remember rigthly all the existing steel barriers need replacing after so many years regardless of condition.

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