Cable barriers

[CharlieTR]

Recently the TXDOT installed many mile of the cable barrier system on the hwy's I travel every day. This hwy is between Dallas and Commerce (a small college town). I figure there must have been so many complants about the number of young people killed by cross-overs. Now that they have completed the install, it has not lasted a year and the highway is going with the perminent concrete barrier. It think it must be due to maintenance/repairs. It is really easy to see the impact the cable barriers have made. There is not one full mile that was not hit and in need of repair, and that's out of 40 plus mile of cable barrier. They do seem to fix it fast, but it sure must cost them. I think it is the great thing they could have done!

 

[JESSE1]

I travel I-20 every day. The TXDOT just finished installing concrete barriers along the route I travel. There have been many fatal cross-over wrecks over the years. Just last week during a heavy rainstorm I saw a westbound car hydroplane and spin toward the median as I was (eastbound) coming toward it. It hit the concrete barrier just as I was passing it. If not for the barrier it would have hit me. Thumbs up for the concrete!
I have also seen the cable barriers after a car has hit them. They evidently work but the contractors seem slow about getting them back up. I wouldn't want to be the ones stretching that cable!

 

[Ryan03]

WE have a maintanence agreement with the Ohio dept. of trans. to maintain 20 or so miles of cable barrier on state route 2 in Lake county, I thought I remember hearing the cable barrier was about 1500.00 a section to replace {post to post}, that is including manpower. Stretching the cable goes pretty easy most of the time, usualy our guys use a 721 Case loader to pull on the cable to tension it, and also to straighten, pull , and pound post, 300 feet can be replaced with 4 experienced men in 3hrs. The only time that it is tediouse is in early winter and spring when the median is too wet to get the loader in, and our guys have to use a post pounder and a gas powered winch to tension the cable. When we get a heavy lake effect snowfall, this barrier has stopped as many as a dozen crossovers in a two hour period!!!. When you think of how many lives it has probably saved in the 12 or so years it has been up, The damage to vehicles and the cost to repair realy seem pretty meager. We also have a 5 mile section of concrete divider instead of cable on the same route, while it is very effective most of the time, one problem we experience with it is in a big snowfall, [ 3 in + an hour] that last for several hours, the snow will build up against the wall as we plow and has been known to propel a vehicle over the wall upside down into oncoming freeway traffic, this does not happen very often, but it does happen. Never seen that happen with the cable barrier

 

[Skyco]

Avid motorcyclist here too, 2004 Suzuki DL1000 V-Strom. As a biker I don't like cable barriers, but then again I rarely ride on freeways... as a car driver I love them. I'm simply amazed since SC installed them how many torn up spots I see, I had no idea so many people went into the medians...
I drive between Columbia SC and Augusta GA frequently, I cannot make that trip, sometimes 2 or 3 times a week without seeng a new spot someone hit

 

[1bush2hog]

I'm in favor of median barriers whether they be constructed of cable, concrete, or steel.

A month or so ago I was traveling south on my way back to Atlanta on my motorcycle. I was passing several semi's when topped a hill and saw a huge dust cloud between the N & S bound lanes, only to then focus on a northbound ford pickup that was crossing the median headed straight towards the opposing traffic (me). Lucky for me the driver turned the truck back in the other direction, crossed back over the center of the median, and jumped both lanes of the interstate before finally t-boning a the bank and stopping. There were many lucky people that day, as no other cars were involved.

Had a median barrier been in place, it would have definitely deflected the truck.

I wonder what the design specs are on those barriers - Can they stop a 90,000lb rig traveling at 70MPH?

 

[3RRL]

I remember seeing a video of a truck hitting a barrier like that. I don't remember what speed he was traveling but I think it was 55mph. It stopped the truck dead. I mean right now! I think it was here on TBN ... not sure?

 

[schmism]

YouTube - Truck crash
do you classify that as a failer of the truck, or the barrier passing

or this one
YouTube - Truck crash

 

[3RRL]

Yeah, it was the first link I saw.

 

[LBrown59]

I'm one of those "don't believe it 'till I see it" types. What I saw Friday was most convincing. What is a fairly common type of accident and generally a multiple fatality accident was reduced to a wasted car and a shook up driver because of a relatively inexpensive saftey device.

Seems like a no brainer to me. More cables, less funerals.

Funerals are pretty expensive too.