Cable barriers for T&T highways to prevent cross-median crashes

The Trinidad and Tobago cabinet on Thursday accepted a recommendation by Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner for the installation of a Cable High Tension Barrier System for the medians of the Solomon Hochoy and Uriah Butler Highways.

The ministry will install the $21 million barrier system along a 42-kilometre stretch from Golconda in South Trinidad, to the Caroni Bridge.

The Traffic Management Branch of the ministry's Highways Division will handle the project.

Warner lobbied for the system as a safety measure noting that many people have died on the highways in accidents resulting from median cross-over crashes.

"When vehicles cross over to opposing lanes of traffic, the risk of catastrophic injuries is very high, since vehicles are often striking head-on and drivers in the opposing lanes have little or no warning that a vehicle is coming from such an unexpected direction," the minister said in a media release.

"The time has come for something to be done to reduce the number of fatalities on the nation’s roads," he added.

Since 2004, the Traffic Management Branch has been placing New Jersey-type concrete barriers on the medians of highways in an effort to prevent cross-over collisions.

Warner noted that while the concrete barriers are very good to prevent cross median crashes they lack the flexibility of the cable type, which is the least rigid of all.

He said this means that the cable barriers would absorb some of the force of the impact when a vehicle hits it, and it is "more likely to stop or capture a vehicle in the median."

The minister also noted that the cable system is less costly than guardrails or concrete barriers.

He expects that the installation of these cable barriers will result in a significant decrease in serious accidents.

He noted that cross-over accidents are common on both highways. He said without the added protection, there will be remains a high risk for accidents cross over accidents to continue.