You are here: Home » Our Work » Why Water Filled Devices

Barriers

Barricades

Barricades

Water ballasted LCD’s cannot easily be knocked down by wind, severe weather conditions or snowplows. Other lightweight devices are frequently displaced by these occurrences. Once displaced these devices are a liability to the owner and contractor.

Concrete barriers used as delineators can be hazardous and potentially lethal if used inappropriately.

Use Longitudinal Channelizers Because They’re Safer!
When more harm will be caused to vehicle occupants by hitting concrete barriers than hitting whatever is behind channelizers, use longitudinal channelizers. They are visually compelling yet unlikely to hurt anyone in the errant vehicle. Watch this video to see an actual crash… View The Video

Using Longitudinal Channelizing Devices (LCD’s) prevents pedestrian access to work zones and clearly guides vehicles around hazardous areas. Delineators such as cones, drums and barricades do not prevent pedestrian access and can be confusing to motorists because of the gaps between them creating liability for the owner and contractor.

LCD’s used as channelizers can prevent motorists from making illegal traffic moves such as going between the gaps. Barrel delineators and other non-connected applications cannot guarantee fail-safe channelization or prevent vehicles from unintentionally traveling into the wrong lane and into oncoming traffic or into work zones. Why not prevent these possibilities?

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) states that detectable edging must be provided along the length of any temporary walkway around a job site, and except where gaps are required for pedestrian or vehicle movements, the edging should be a maximum of 2 1/2″ above the surface of the pathway to be detectable by users of long canes. No drum, delineator, or barricade or barricade provides compliance to this MUTCD requirement, and again, these devices expose owners and contractors to liability.

LCD’s clearly delineate the work zone at night and in bad weather.
Drivers can become disoriented at night or in inclement weather as drums and barricades do not clearly delineate the work zone in these conditions.

LCD’s can prevent confusion & provide safe & efficient movement of traffic through work zones.
Motorists sometimes must adapt to sudden changes in speed, navigate through narrowed and shifting lanes, and avoid being distracted by adjacent work areas.

LCD’s are not easy targets for thieves, especially when interlocked, since they are heavier than cones, folding barricades and drums.

LCD’s are cost effective in long-term projects because of their size and weight when ballasted.
The greater size of these devices increases the “shy” distance of passing vehicles, keeping them from being run down by vehicles.

LCD’s require little or no daily maintenance and no daily repositioning.
They eliminate work order changes since they do not need to be constantly replaced, resulting in savings on long-term projects. Direct labor costs are also saved when using plastic barricades.

LCD’s are fabricated from highly visible polyethylene & can be made in OSHA safety colors.
They won’t rust, chip, bend or peel.

Barriers

A thorough evaluation of these temporary traffic control devices should place a particular emphasis on balancing the protection of construction and maintenance workers with the safety of road users traveling through work zones.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 101 fatal occupational injuries at road construction sites in 2008 alone. In 2007, 831 workers and motorists were killed in highway work zones and more than 40,000 were injured. Eighty-five percent of those killed in work zones are drivers or their passengers.¹

According to an exhaustive report on 2008 traffic fatalities released by the Illinois Department of Transportation², there were 31 fatal crashes in work zones in which 31 people were killed. Only two of the persons killed were road construction workers, more than 93% of fatal injuries where to drivers and their passengers. Four out of five of the people who die in work zone crashes are motorists, not highway workers according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.³

The current mindset set of the safety community is geared toward using “positive protection” to protect maintenance workers in roadway work zones. As a result, concrete barrier has become the temporary traffic control device most commonly used in highway work zones to provide positive protection. In fact, a recent survey of practices confirmed that temporary concrete barrier is the option most frequently used by state transportation agencies.⁴

This has happened even when the data from work zone accident fatalities overwhelmingly indicate that maintenance workers are in the minority of those killed in work zone.

As stated in Part 6 of the MUTCD, “the primary function of temporary traffic control is to provide for the safe and efficient movement of vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians through or around temporary traffic control zones while reasonably protecting workers and equipment”. Traffic engineers expect these devices to improve safety for the motorists and reasonably protect workers when they are installed and maintained properly. However, the widespread use of concrete barrier has been because the emphasis on safety has been on positive protection for workers, while 85% of fatalities are drivers and their passengers. These motorists and their passengers can be subject to average forces of 9.55 g’s and as high as 23.5 g’s (See table 1)⁵ when impacting at 25 degree angles when traveling in standard size pickups. The same vehicle when impacting water-filled barrier systems at 25 degrees measured average ride-down accelerations of 4.42 g’s with the highest measurement at 12.10 g’s, (See table 2).⁶

Keep in mind these angles are low and motorists can expect much higher forces when striking barriers that have been located perpendicular to traffic flow to close lanes. It is clear, when the crash test data is reviewed, that plastic water ballast devices create more positive outcomes in the event of an accident than the use of traditional concrete barrier due to the high G’s that motorists are subjected to when impacting concrete barrier.

If 85% of work zone accidents fatalities are drivers and their passengers, and water filled devices provide a higher degree of safety for the motorists passing through work zones, it would seem logical that water filled devices would be the traffic control device of choice.

It is important to recognize that utilizing the full array of work zone traffic control devices available, and deploying suitable traffic control devices for each specific job, can prevent many accidental injuries and deaths in work zones. The continued reliance on temporary concrete barrier for every work zone application is extremely hazardous to the motoring public.

Many plastic barriers can be used to replace concrete barriers where positive protection is required. Consult the MUTCD Section 6F.68, local regulations, or the WBMA or FHWA for more information.

The term “barrier” is used loosely as a substitute for “barricade,” but in regulatory terms these words are not synonymous. See MUTCD Section 6F.66.

¹ FHWA-HRT-09-011, http://www.tfhrc.gov/focus/mar09/03.htm

² http://www.dot.il.gov/travelstats/2008cfweb.pdf

³ http://virginiadot.org/programs/WorkZoneSafetynewsroom.asp

⁴ Work Zone Positive Protection Tool Box, ATSSA, p.5.

⁵ Results of NCHRP-350 Test 3-11 from FHWA

⁶ Ibid