New Armco barrier looks incomplete?

[jamei303]

On the A14 around Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds they've spent a good year or so replacing sections of the central reservation barrier. They've obvious finished now but I've never seen a barrier like this. I'm not a barrier expert but it looks like they haven't bolted on the actual curved barrier facing to the beam? Is this some new sort of barrier?

[aterribleusername]

Yes, a new type that I've seen in a few places round the south west. Don't know when they started rolling it out but it looks lethal for motorcyclists and not strong enough to stop a heavy vehicle either. Cars will probably dig into it too rather than bounce off the old style twin ribbon of corrugation ones. A step up on the cheese grater design though!

[DangerDoom]

Those planted trees are stronger than they look.

[Mr Tidy]

They look pretty unforgiving!

Not much better than the post and cable barrier on the A3 near Burpham that didn't do my niece's Polo any favours!

[ianrb]

The changes to the A9, just north of Perth, have the same type of barrier in the central reservation, although the barriers on either side of the road look like the old style armco. Based purely on a drive-by survey it looks as if an MX5 would easily wedge underneth the central barrier, which is worrying.

[b0rk]

Looks like a variant of open box beam, the top rail aka beam will be clipped and bolted to the posts internally.

The strength comes from the thickness of the steel rather than the profile.

It’s not going to stop much but then again conventional profiled “armco” isn’t great against modern cars or trucks.

[Pica-Pica]

The original ARMCO concept and set-up was to not ‘rebound’ cars back into the carriageway, but to slow them (by frictional contact) and keep them next to the barrier.

[HelterSkelter]

A bit of useless info... I know alot of people use the term Armco as a general term for crash barrier but the Armco brand actually isn't certified for highway use in this country. it's only certified for use on commercial and industrial property, car parks for example.

Pica-Pica said:

The original ARMCO concept and set-up was to not ‘rebound’ cars back into the carriageway, but to slow them (by frictional contact) and keep them next to the barrier.

I'm not aware of that original concept but the primary objective of crash barrier now is to protect whatever is behind that barrier. Be it an asset, structure or the other side of the carriageway. To minimise the chance of a vehicle breaching the barrier and hit what it's protecting, the system is designed to deflect the vehicle away from it once hit.