Safe Speed Forums

Does anyone know if there are rules and regs. regarding ARMCO barrier once it becomes damaged?

I am concerned that a damaged section of ARMCO could lead to a vehicle getting impaled on it, rather than being kept on the carriageway.

The ARMCO in question is between a busy main road, and an exit slip road which drops away to the left, down a bank.

The accident which led to the ARMCO being damaged was some time ago, and was severe enough to have not been overlooked.
I HAVE reported it to the Highways Authority to no avail.

This is not the best view - just the safest place to take the picture from.

As you can see, a good deal of barrier is peeled back, leaving the bank unprotected, and the cones are nearly over grown. The picture was taken in March - but the accident which caused it was last year!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

On a similar note, there is part of a steep embankment at the side of the westbound M27 after Jct 9 (just after the A3051 overbridge) that is not protected by a barrier.

The HA spent millions on new VMSs that still display incorrect information instead.

That's shocking! Although they aren't always effective safety fences have a ramped anchorage to prevent head on collisions to their terminals, this clearly is unsafe and very dangerous.

I know that I'm sometimes constrained from carrying out maintenance schemes for various reasons but that's a serious safety defect. And as much as I hate to admit it, if contact with the Highways Agency doesn't work get onto your Councillor or MP, sometimes it's the only way I can get safety related repairs carried out, it seems to shock the people above me into letting me do works.

Well I reported it in November last year, no result.
I reported it in April this year, and the fault tracker has this to say...


So if you run off the road and hit this bit of damaged ARMCO before the program kicks in.....

TOUGH - you are on your own!!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Pleased to say that following Dougman's post, I emailed my MP, and local county councillor, (who happens to be the County deputy leader), and expressed my dismay that the County's Highways Authority were gambling with peoples lives, and we now hav a nice new crash barrier, along the whole length.
I shall endeavour to get a picture of it, as it is not the standard ARMCO type, it is one I have not seen before. The end is blunt, but features a striped warning plate, and presumably is collapsible.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

yeh theyve been putting those ends in round here lately.. must be all the rage

probably less likely to flip a car than the ramps they usually have, not sure how i'd feel about them as a biker tho' (which i'm not)

Seen a couple of those round here. I am not sure that they are such a good thing (Especially in the places where they have been installed! I may take some pictures to show you what I mean, if I can figure out how to post them! )

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

Thanks to Dr L for supplying this picture of said barriers.
I'd have to "feel" the metal to see how they might work safely - presumably they have been tested - but on a motorbike, or a Reliant Robin??


I see the sections are smaller, which could help absorb impact.

Any roadside excavators out there in the know?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Thanks Ernest for posting the picture and your acknowledgment.

This barrier was on the southbound Norwich bypass, Norfolk, but similar ones were noticed at various locations along the A11, North of the A14.

Through wonders of digital photography and image enhancement the picture was taken as it was getting dark, hence taillight streaking. Will try to get better photos and measurements as circumstances allow.

Other photos show notches in the supporting posts, perhaps to allow some yielding on impact ??

They have put these new types of "end stops" on some of the n/s armco on the M4.

They look bloody scary to me!

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"Are you sh**ing me?"
"John Spartan, you are fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute."

Think i've seen them around West Mids - now got nappy rash

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on