Accident spurs fears over wire rope safety
LANE SEPARATORS CALLED INTO QUESTION
THE effectiveness of the barriers designed to prevent vehicles crossing from one carriageway to the other on North Wales’ busiest road is being called into question after a dramatic incident on Anglesey last week.
Dashcam footage shared online shows the driver of an articulated tanker being driven eastbound along the A55 near Llangefni losing control and striking the solid steel crash barrier on the left side.
The tanker bounced off this barrier and went across both lanes and through the steel cable barrier separating the eastbound from the westbound carriageway as though it wasn’t there.
The vehicle overturned on the westbound carriageway. There were other vehicles in the vicinity but luckily none were struck. The driver of the HGV suffered only minor injuries, but the road was closed for several hours.
Police are investigating but motorists are concerned this type of barrier is unsuitable for highspeed roads such as the A55.
One reader suggested the cable barrier needs to be replaced with a barrier that would prevent a large vehicle from crossing the central reservation.
He commented: “The central ‘cable’ barrier appears to be useless when a vehicle of this size hits it.
“Perhaps the authorities should reassess the use of such low barriers.”
Another road user said a motorcyclist’s worse nightmare is to hit those cables. He said bikers have nicknamed the cables “cheese cutters”.
In 2006 a young motorist died when his vehicle went right through the cable system on the A55 near Llanfairpwll and collided with an oncoming bus.
After the inquest into the death of Gareth Jones, his mum Heather Rowlands blamed the tragedy on the wire rope barriers.
Retired highways engineer Martin Wills said the system is known as Wire Rope Safety Fence (WRSF) and has been around since about the early 1990s.
The A55 across Anglesey was completed in 2001 and this system was installed before the road opened for traffic. He added the WRSF consists of four wires and these are under tension and anchored at intervals of about 600 meters.
Mr Wills said: “There are several reasons why cable wire barriers are used.
“Firstly, they are easier to maintain. When a traditional barrier is hit all the posts and damaged barrier have to be replaced, while as long as it is not a substantial hit, only the posts have to be replaced, with the wire just retensioned.
“With all types of safety fence the primary function of the posts are to hold the safety fence at the correct height.
“A secondary action is that when the safety fence is hit, the safety fence and its posts absorb the energy of the vehicle, so that as each post is hit, it slows the vehicle further.
“In addition, the post falls away to the inside of the wheel. This then holds the wheel into the safety fence, thereby hopefully containing the vehicle rather than bouncing it back into the traffic
“Another benefit of WRSF is that it in areas of substantial snowfall it allows snow through, where other types tend to obstruct it and allow drifts to build up.”
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “The barrier system in place on the A55 is an approved system for use on the Strategic Road Network.”