Cable Barriers Stop Sliding Tractor-Trailer From Crossing Median on Icy I-70
February 2, 2011
SPRINGFIELD — A tractor-trailer would have slid into oncoming traffic on Interstate 70 Tuesday morning if not for the cable barriers installed between the lanes, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Instead, the truck’s trailer snagged on the cables in the median preventing any injuries or other vehicles being involved.
This same type of barrier will be installed as part of a highway widening project just up the road where a semi crossover crash in January 2010 claimed four lives.
“That is the purpose of the cable barrier. It is supposed to stop and catch a vehicle if it goes into the median,” said Ohio Department of Transportation spokeswoman Mandi Abner.
“Recently, we have been installing it more and more frequently throughout our district,” she said.
The barriers consist of posts with several rows of cables between them. It’s designed to not only prevent a vehicle from crossing over, but also to catch it so it doesn’t bounce back in the direction it was going.
They are being installed as part of the $27 million widening of I-70 from Ohio 72 to U.S. 40, where the state is adding a third lane in each direction.
This is the same stretch of road where the driver of a tractor-trailer lost control on the icy interstate last year and slid across a grassy median into oncoming traffic. He collided with a bus carrying developmentally disabled adults, killing four and injuring six. No cable barrier was installed at that location at that time.
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Source: Springfield News Sun
By Valerie Lough and Josh Sweigart, Staff Writers