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UP / Thumb of Michigan | There was a long post a few years ago about them. Got somewhat heated as I recall.
Anyway, my view from back then hasn't changed much. Cable barriers are a great tool- if placed correctly. I have a BIL who's a prof at a university working in transportation, he and I have debated them a few times.
The pro's are pretty obvious: keep the opposing traffic from hitting each other. They usually work well for that.
The cons: and most of these are due to placement-
1. They act as snow fence. If they're far enough off the traveled portion of the road, likely not too bad of a thing. If they're a couple feet off the travelled portion, they can eliminate that lane in blowing snow due to needlessly.
2. Not sure why they aren't installed in the center of the median. Thats the point that my BIL and I can't seem to agree on. For example: on I 69 from Flint to Lansing, there's a lot of cable barriers. I'm going to guess there's at least a hundred feet of median. Maybe 200. They aren't usually in the center of that, they are quite close to the traveled portion of the road. In my opinion, if they were in the center, a couple things might happen. First of all, the vehicle could scrub off a lot of speed before hitting them. No down side there.
3. If a motorcyclist gets forced into them, yes they are correctly named cheese graters. This is the part that got contentions on the old post. One viewpiont was that if a bikers ran into them, it was only his or hers fault and they kind of had it coming. My point was that if I'm in the left lane, and a vehicle to my right suddenly decides to be in my lane, I have nowhere to go. If I have some unencumbered room in the median, I can take it and even if the cable barriers are present, if they were not a few feet off the edge of the roads I might be able to lay it down at worst. Maybe at best I can keep it upright. If I have to get away from a semi coming into my lane at speed and leave the road to avoid him only to hit a cable barrier 3 feet off the pavement, my chances aren't good no matter which choice I make.
4. After they were installed in some places in Michigan, a truck left the road and got tangled up in a cable barrier. Got the cable all wound up in the rear wheels somehow. Wrecker driver was torching the cable to tow the truck, didn't consider how much tension they wrere now under. Outcome was extremely gory and deadly.
Back to my BIL- he said the biggest challenge when working with a highway department anywhere is placement. If they were installed where I think they should be- in the middle of a median- his studies how they need to be one or 2 cables higher. Cost goes up, that's where the limitation is. I'd think thats they'd get hit less and therefore be lower maintenance. | |
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Cable fence along the interstate in between the two medians.
