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Cable Median Barriers |
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This page last updated
January 01, 2010 |
Back in the early part of
the last decade, there were a
number of serious head-on collisions on San Antonio area freeways that had no center
median barrier. After a rash of these along Loop 1604, TxDOT installed
temporary concrete Jersey barriers in the median of 1604 and announced
that they would be installing tension-cable barriers in the medians of
other area highways. As is typical, the second-guessing began
almost immediately. Skeptics bellowed that the "flimsy" barriers
wouldn't even stop a Yugo, let alone an 18-wheeler. But TxDOT's
engineers defended the barriers and insisted that they would work as advertised. And
indeed, in the first two years that cable barriers were in place in the San Antonio area, they
stopped every single vehicle that hit them,
including an 18-wheeler on I-35 in Von Ormy. A before-and-after
study in 2007 showed that since cable barriers were installed around the state, the
number of fatalities on those roads where the barriers were installed dropped
from more than 50 fatalities in the year before installation to
just one fatality in the year afterward. In short, the barriers work and work well. In
fact, they're better than metal guardrails and concrete Jersey barriers because they absorb more energy
of the impact than do those traditional barriers, thus reducing the chance of injury and lessening
the damage to vehicles that collide with them. They also reduce the number of "rebound" accidents where a
vehicle hits the barrier and then bounces-back into the traffic lanes. All these benefits come at a cost that
is substantially less than the more traditional barriers.
Photo showing how a
cable barrier stopped an 18-wheeler
(Courtesy:
Washington Department of Transportation)
A while back, a friend told me about someone he knew who had an
accident and went into the cable barrier on I-10 West. She walked
away from the crash uninjured, yet she was upset because the barrier had
sliced into her car and had caused significant damage. I wonder if
she realizes that the barrier quite likely saved her life, or at least
prevented serious injury. Had it not been for the barrier, she
would gone into the oncoming traffic and probably been struck head-on or
T-boned by traffic going 70 mph. I also wonder if she realizes
that her vehicle would've suffered equal or greater damage if there had
been a traditional concrete barrier instead.
As of late 2009, Texas had about 800 miles of cable median barrier installed.
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Cable median barriers
