|
Posted by Kevin on April 28, 2008, 6:51 pm
> Kevin wrote:
>>> Just something I'm curious about...
>>>
>>> I assume we've all seen the impact attenuators they put in front of
>>> concrete highway dividers and toll booths - the barrels of sand or
>>> large rubber bumbers. They're supposed to slow a vehicle down so they
>>> don't hit the solid obstruction at full speed.
>>>
>>> Why do they mark them with orange cones after they get damaged?
>>
>>> What's the point of marking them with "caution cones" when no one
>>> would actually consider hitting them even if they weren't damaged?
>>
>> I work for our state's DOT, during the winter. I set out plenty of
>> barrels, when not keeping the xways free of snow & ice. Our barrels are
>> empty, we place a dual rubber base to keep it in place. By hand, you can
>> move these where ever you please. They are not meant to slow down a
>> vehicle veering out of control.
>>
> He was talking about the yellow barrels, not the orange ones. Around
> here, the yellow ones are partially filled with sand, in two layers, one
> at bottom, and one in an inner lid. Water freezes and leaks. The just
> need to have enough mass so wind doesn't blow them around, and to create
> enough friction to break the contact patch between the skidding car and
> the ground. They may be ugly, but they work a lot better than the
> telescoping sections of armco rail, which tend to rust together. (They
> used to bury the rail approaches to avoid spearing people, until they
> realized that just provided a launching ramp for a keen stunt driver
> corkscrew.)
>
> For awhile around here, they also went back to wood posts for the signs,
> predrilled to break in a certain way when hit, and corkscrew over the car
> instead of going through windshield. I guess they weren't durable enough-
> they seem to have gone back to metal the last few years.
>
> --
> aem sends...
Hi aem,
I guess I should have _snipped_ the part about yellow barrels. I was
replying to the part about the _orange cones_ being set out after an
attenuator gets damaged. Instead of orange cones, we set out orange
barrels.
| 
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap