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[Roller]

Does anyone else have that new cable retainer system along the higway in their neck of the woods?  We just got a mile or two of it in Beaumont and it's designed to 'bounce' a car back into it's own lanes and prevent it from crossing into oncoming traffic if it hits the median.  That's great for a car, but if a bike hits it, it's going to shred the rider.  It's 4 or 5 inch wide I-beams sticking up out of concrete about 4 feet high, and three 3/4" cables are threaded thru the I-beams along the edge of the roadway.  It may be better than going into oncoming traffic, but couldn't be much better.  It would certainly keep the other cars off of you.  Everytime I see those things, I cringe.
   I guess the moral of the story is don't run into the stuff in the first place.

[vtxan]

I saw the same thing just west of Weatherford the other day and thought the same thing.  No one ever considers the bikers when they design this stuff.

[Xlr8]

I haven't seen it and I really don't like the sounds of it....nasty.

[Jimbo]

We got a few miles of the stuff here in west Fort Worth on I-820. Bad news for the bikes...

[RD]

They've started putting it up on I-10, and on our outer loop 1604. We've had a lot of "crossing over" accidents in the last couple of years around here.

[Swampfox]

I don't mine the safty Stuff it's the damaged roads grooves cut in a road holes and road trash I worry about it every where.

[Dusty]

Does anyone else have that new cable retainer system along the highway in their neck of the woods?  We just got a mile or two of it in Beaumont and it's designed to 'bounce' a car back into it's own lanes and prevent it from crossing into oncoming traffic if it hits the median.  That's great for a car, but if a bike hits it, it's going to shred the rider.  It's 4 or 5 inch wide I-beams sticking up out of concrete about 4 feet high, and three 3/4" cables are threaded thru the I-beams along the edge of the roadway.  It may be better than going into oncoming traffic, but couldn't be much better.  It would certainly keep the other cars off of you.  Every time I see those things, I cringe.
   I guess the moral of the story is don't run into the stuff in the first place.

I've been sitting in one lane for the past month, to and from work, morning and evening, while they were putting that stuff up. At first I was puzzled by why they were adding asphalt out beyond the shoulder. What a waste I thought. Then, I saw them drill the holes on basically 10 ft. centers. This amazed me because they left the holes open and unprotected for anyone who may break down and pull over to step in and break a leg. Let me do that on a construction job and see what OSHA does.
Then they started setting the post and I realised they put the asphalt down so they wouldn't have to weed eat under the new GUARDRAIL they were going to put up. Then I saw the cables going up. YIKES!
My first thoughts were can I time my jump to clear the top of the giant cheese cutter while my bike was tossed back into traffic for the cars to play bumper bike with. Then, a couple of days later when I was headed South on 69 at Lucas I saw someone had already left the road and mowed down about six of the I-beams leaving a tangled mass of steel and cable. Oh joy, lets ride into that.
I finally woke up and realized why they put these where they put them. These are at high traffic merging points. The places where the, can't wait, talking on the cell phone, pass on the shoulder and pay no attention to paint markings, get out of my way people are more prone to rear end someone. So, instead of a rail to stop them  when they realize they screwed up and leave the pavement, they spent millions to save their lives and hopefully keep them from going into on coming traffic.
Now, what would cause less bodily harm to a biker? One solid guard rail or multiple strands of cable and increasing pieces of 30" i-beam flailing around. If the impact doesn't get you, don't give up, you still have a chance to gain multiple contusions.
Now, are these I-beams designed to break away and are easy to replace? Or, do they have to go back, pull up the concrete and do the process all over again? I sure hope they are easily replaced. I'm really tired of sitting in one lane of traffic. It's bad enough when it's two lanes and everyone is fighting to gain that 18 feet of pavement that lies directly in front of me. Take the pavement just give me my 2 second space. 

I feel better now 

Bill

[cyberchick]

Holy cow - those sound very scary!

[hipshot]

They're going to put up whatever will give them the most results for the least money. Apparently someone has concluded that this is it. We have the concrete center barricades here. One night I watched a BMW (cage) doing 360s at well over 100 mph hit it; it moved the barricade but it kept the car on my side of the road. However, I have seen two wrecks where the cars went over it onto the other side. I'm not aware of anything that will stop either a cage or a bike safely in every conceiveable event.

[pepsX]

there are a few miles of the cheese cutter along I-10 outside of Houston on the West side. it would not be fun to ride into that on a bike. I wonder if they did any testing with bike getting tangled up in that mess.
when they first started laying the concrete for it in the center of the median, i thought it was for the "undodcumented citizens" (notice it has been upgraded from undocumented worker) heading into Houston to keep them out of traffic. but then they started putting up posts and stringing cable.

[Dusty]

I sort of did a real brief, at a distance inspection of the post today and they appear to be designed to break away right below the surface as they have a plastic cap around the i-beam base. I got a quick look at one that had been toppled last week and it looked like there were some bolts at the base that had been sheared by the impact.

What impact it would take to shear them is another question. But I bet an 800 lb bike could take at least one out at speed. A man probably would just stick and stay. Sort of as unforgiving as the solid guard rail.

Bill

[jarubio]

They have put those "retainers" on MoPac (Loop 1) in Austin. I go on that road that often, so I did not think to much about it. Roller, thanks for the heads up, now I can see how a rider can get shredded up. Scary thought

[Skydvr]

Yikes....this doesn't sound good.