Why after all these years with armco, is it not good enough ?

Fr0dders

Fr0dders

Fr0dders

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
33,469
Location
West Yorks
Anybody else noticed that huge swathes of the m1 and m62 are having their central reservations dug up, and being replaced with big continental style concrete walls.

We've know cars can crash through the armco for years

why the sudden change of heart ? must be costing millions ripping it all up and putting these massive concrete blocks all the way down the nations motorways.
 
add m4 and m5 to the list.
It's not sudden though, I remember watching a documentary on it and t must have been like a decade ago when they where testing new styles and saying it's not just about things going through it, but how vehicles glance or run along.
 
been loads of it around the southern stretch of the M25 for years.
now they have ripped up part of the M4 in wales and also the link road into cardiff, to put concrete in :(
 
Yeah, M4 fron newport to Cardiff and Specs with 50mph limit. This of course has nothing to do with Newport councils considerations for a bypass toll road.
 
mejinks said:
Yeah, M4 fron newport to Cardiff and Specs with 50mph limit. This of course has nothing to do with Newport councils considerations for a bypass toll road.
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Seeing as this is happening all over the Uks motorway network and all with average speed cameras. I doubt it has anything to do with it. It's looks like a country wide roll out.
 
We should do what Belgium does in places and just have a strip of grass separating the carriageways, and random shrubbery planted sporadically in the middle :p
 
AcidHell2 said:
Seeing as this is happening all over the Uks motorway network and all with average speed cameras. I doubt it has anything to do with it. It's looks like a country wide roll out.
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yeah the M1 and M6 has those nasty looking gantrys like the ones that house the SPECS units on the M25

That thought occured to me also.
 
mejinks said:
Yeah, M4 fron newport to Cardiff and Specs with 50mph limit. This of course has nothing to do with Newport councils considerations for a bypass toll road.
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nope, its to do with rolling out variable speed limits along that stretch. thats why they are building the gantries for more cameras and signs :p
 
EU rule mandating it?

The concrete presetting mould thing they use sometimes to make it all one long continuous piece of concrete is cool though!
 
FACTS FOLLOWING

The concrete is used for very good reason.

It is a narrower central reservation allowing for a three land carriageway to be made a four lane carrigaeway without the need for retarmacing/digging up etc. All thats required once the 5 foot reservation has been reduced to 1-2 is narrow the hard shoulder and repaint the lines.

Lesson over :)
 
Pleased at the change of heart, once you've had a 40 ton truck come through the armco like it didn't exist heading right for you on the M6 it makes you think just how poor the protection it offers.
 
spoonz said:
FACTS FOLLOWING

The concrete is used for very good reason.

It is a narrower central reservation allowing for a three land carriageway to be made a four lane carrigaeway without the need for retarmacing/digging up etc. All thats required once the 5 foot reservation has been reduced to 1-2 is narrow the hard shoulder and repaint the lines.

Lesson over :)
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oh thats right, because the current 2 rail armco is on concrete already... not.
most have grass between the 2 carriageways, so this does need digging up and tarmacing.
 
thats exactly whats been happening on the motorways networks as we speak.

They dug a hole in the M62 central reservation about a foot deep before they filled it with hardcore etc..
 
The section of M1 between J28 and J25 is laughable.

15 miles of narrow lanes and a 50mph limit, and at any given time you'll see about half a dozen blokes actually doing some work on it on a 200-yard stretch.

Restrict a mile or two at a time, finish it and move onto the next bit.

But that's far too much like a dose of common sense, so lets knacker up 15 miles of motorway just to work on 1/50th of it at a time :rolleyes:
 
makes me laugh when they run quicker than roadrunner of the job site come 5pm. If you drive down that stretch at 5pm you'd swear that all the blokes had left, but nobody had told the poor blokes you just passed a minute ago when it was 4:59 lol.
 
OllyM said:
We should do what Belgium does in places and just have a strip of grass separating the carriageways, and random shrubbery planted sporadically in the middle :p
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provides excellent cover for unmarked police cars, although thankfully never on the ones i use \o/
 
Firestar_3x said:
Pleased at the change of heart, once you've had a 40 ton truck come through the armco like it didn't exist heading right for you on the M6 it makes you think just how poor the protection it offers.
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Sadly,in some situations, concrete walls don't stop 40+ tonners much better..... :(

Still, if it goes any way to prevent this, its no bad thing.
:eek:

Suspension failure......:(
 
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Any type of barrier is not designed to take a head on collision its designed for glancing blows at about 20 degrees. The new concrete barrier schould have a minimal deflection if hit.

Also it is costing millions to do this scheme as the traffic management alone would easily be a couple of million. Construction schemes are really expensive. The works along the M1 are part of the active traffic management systems being implemented (be prepared for more) as this country can't afford and local residents don't want new motorways designed to cope with the flows ours experience. They simply cannot cope withthe current flows of traffic which is ever increasing.

Btw if you are feeling really geeky go to this link here as this is TD19 which is the standard for road restraint systems.

My job is boring :(

Aero
 
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