Compact Profile Highway Barrier

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Ser. No. 63/648,333 filed on May 16, 2025, and the complete contents thereof are herein incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention is generally directed to highway barriers which are used to protect work sites, divide roadways, prevent traffic from straying off course of a bridge or roadway, as protection for buildings, and in other applications, where the highway barriers are used on highways, roads, residential streets, on bridges, in front of buildings, and in other desired venues.

BACKGROUND

Concrete highway barriers have been used for many years for blocking off areas for traffic, delineating driving lines, protecting drivers from straying off of roadways and/or bridges, for controlling the flow of traffic, and in other applications.

As road systems continue to grow, roadway work zones along primary, secondary, and urban highway systems have become commonplace. Work zones are often delineated by temporary longitudinal safety shape barriers, sometimes referred to as New Jersey, F, and constant slope barriers. The thirty two inch height of these typical longitudinal barriers reduces cross-traffic visibility, particularly at night. For example, the driver of a cross-traffic vehicle must typically pull into a mainstream roadway before being able to see oncoming vehicles.

One well proven concrete highway barrier design is referred to as JJ HOOKS®, which is sold and licensed by the Easi-Set Industries of Midland, VA. These highway barriers are generally described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,149,224, 7,607,645, and 9,422,681, each of which is herein incorporated by reference. As discussed in these patents, a highway protection system is provided by having a several sections of concrete highway barrier, connected together by J hooks which project out of the ends of each barrier and connect with a J hook that projects out of the end of an adjacent concrete highway barrier.

SUMMARY

An aspect of the invention pertains to the design and deployment of a low profile barrier short enough to provide an unhindered line of sight between a cross-traffic driver's vision and oncoming traffic. The design provides limited deflection and has no loose hardware, and meets the latest Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Manual of Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) full crash testing guidelines. Thus, the invention provides a barrier which significantly improves traffic safety as well as worker and pedestrian safety.

A further aspect of the invention pertains to a compact, low profile, low speed crash barrier system made of a plurality of rigid precast concrete sections connected end to end in interlocking relationship with one another. The end of each section has a specifically designed confinement vertical channel groove in which the a connector plate is embedded, thus limiting the deflection (e.g., lateral movement) of engaged barriers.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the alignment of a plurality of interlocked barrier sections;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the front of one of the barrier sections;

FIG. 3 is a cut away view showing a top down view of one of the barrier sections illustrating the connector plate and hook assembly extending the hook from the central confinement channel groove, and illustrating the energy dissipation and deflector plates extending into the concrete of the barrier section;

FIG. 4 is an isometric view of the connector plate and hook assembly;

FIG. 5 is a side view of two connected barrier sections illustrating the lower V shape that permits a small amount of both lateral and horizontal movement of adjacent and connected barrier sections;

FIG. 6 is a side view of a barrier section illustrating the inward slope or tapered section of the face of the barrier section beginning below the deflection plate region at the top of the barrier section;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of an energy dissipation and deflector plate; and

FIG. 8 is a top view showing two connected barrier sections with minimal separation allowed therebetween.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows a roadway safety system comprised of a plurality of individual compact profile highway barriers 10, 12, 14, and 16 connected together in an interlocking relationship. Each of the barriers 10, 12, 14, and 16 are preferably precast concrete sections composed of steel reinforced concrete. More preferably, the concrete strength is a minimum of 3,500 pounds per square inch (PSI), and the reinforcement is steel in the form of one or more of rebar and steel wire mesh. A safety system includes at least two barriers positioned and connected end to end; however, safety systems can include hundreds of barriers connected together in miles long implementations. While the system of the present invention may accommodate some slight curves, it has particular utility in straight sections.

FIG. 2 shows one end of a compact profile highway barrier 18 according to an embodiment of the invention. The barrier 18 has a top side 28, a bottom side 30, a right side 32, and a left side 34. Cross-sectionally, the compact profile highway barrier 18 resembles an inverted trapezoid, where all sides are relatively flat, and the width of the top side 28 is 1-20% wider than the width of the bottom side 30. In some embodiments the width of the bottom side 30 from the right side 32 to the left side 34 is preferably approximately 26 inches (e.g., +1 inch). A preferred embodiment has width of the top side 28 between the right side 32 and left side 34 being approximately 28 inches (e.g., +1 inch). Typical highway barriers are approximately 32 inches tall. By contrast, the height between the top side 28 and the bottom side 30 of the compact profile highway barrier is most preferably approximately 20 inches (e.g., +1 inch). The lower height allows vehicle drivers to more easily see over the compact profile highway barrier for other vehicles while turning, for pedestrians, for workers at a job site, etc. The inverted trapezoid design helps drive the vehicle wheels downward during crashes (particularly low speed crashes) and keep the vehicle away from protected areas (e.g., road edges, oncoming traffic lanes, job sites, etc.). Crash force absorbing capabilities of the compact profile highway barrier 18 are also enhanced by the overall width of the barrier. The flat bottom side 30 of the barrier 18 enables it to be laid directly on a roadway without additional hardware being required.

A confinement vertical channel groove 38 is centrally located in each end of the compact profile highway barrier. The confinement vertical channel groove 38 extends from the top side 28 to the bottom side 30 of the barrier 18.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, The confinement vertical channel groove 38 is preferably a squared off U shape which has a first side 40 and a second side 42 spaced apart and a base area 44. A J-J hook mode formed steel connection coupling 46 is positioned in the central region of the confinement vertical channel groove 38.

With reference to FIG. 2, and FIG. 6, it can be seen that the face side of the end of the compact profile highway barrier 18 has a flat top region 47 and an inward tapered region 49. A pair of energy dissipation and deflector plates 51 and 53 are positioned in the flat top region 47. As shown in FIG. 7, the deflector plates 51 or 53 generally comprise a front plate 55 with a back section welded or otherwise connected to rebar 57 or other suitable structural element. As shown in FIG. 3, the rebar 57 element extends into the concrete of the compact profile highway barrier 18. Referring back to FIG. 2, a chamfer 59 can extend from the top 28 to the flat top region 47, and chamfers 61 and 63 can extend respectively from side 34 and side 32 to the front of the compact profile highway barrier 18.

FIG. 2 shows the hook end of the connection coupling 46 preferably extends only part of the way from the top of the inward tapered region 49 (shown best in FIG. 6) towards the bottom 30 of the compact profile highway barrier 18. Furthermore, the connection coupling 46 is positioned in the confinement vertical channel groove 38 at a point below the flat top region 4.

FIG. 4 is an isometric view of a preferred embodiment of a J-J hook mode formed steel connection coupling 46. The J-J hook mode formed steel connection coupling has a hook portion 58 which is preferably U shaped, and which extends out of the confinement vertical channel groove, a base portion 60 which extends into and is embedded in concrete of the concrete body at a base of the of the confinement vertical channel groove, and a connector angle member 62 positioned between the hook portion 58 and the base portion 60. Preferably, the J-J hook mode formed steel connection coupling 46 is installed in the confinement vertical channel groove 38 with the base portion 60 extending into the concrete of the compact profile highway barrier 18, and with the connector angle member 62 having its base either adjacent to or embedded in the base 44 of the confinement vertical channel groove 38. In addition, preferably the connector angle member 62 extends from an inside surface of the J-J hook mode formed steel connection coupling and extends across the base 44 of the confinement vertical channel groove 38, best shown in FIG. 3, such that the outside surface of the J-J hook mode formed steel connection coupling rests against or is in close proximity (e.g., less than half an inch, and more preferably less than a quarter of an inch) with the first side 40 of the confinement vertical channel groove 38, and the outer edge of the connector angle member 62 is in contact with or is in close proximity (e.g., less than half an inch, and more preferably less than a quarter of an inch) the second side 42 of the confinement vertical channel groove 38.

The distance from the top edge to the bottom edge of the J-J hook mode formed steel connection coupling is preferably approximately 12 inches (e.g., +1 inch), and the height of the inward taper region 49 of the face of the compact high barrier, shown best in FIG. 6 is approximately 16 inches. FIG. 4 also shows in the preferred embodiment that the connector angle member 62 is skewed from the top edge of the J-J hook mode formed steel connection coupling 46 to the bottom edge of the hook connector. Preferably the skew angle is between 0 and 10 degrees, and most preferably approximately 2 degrees (e.g., +1 degree). In a preferred embodiment, the skew angle of the connector angle member 62 approximates the angle of the inward taper region 48 on the face end of the barrier 18.

The J-J hook mode formed steel connection coupling is preferably made of a low carbon, mild structural steel alloy. However, other metals or composite materials of equal or greater strength may be used. Ultimately, the J-J hook mode formed steel connection coupling must be of sufficient strength to help withstand a crash into the barrier 18, and preferably only allow minimal damage to the vehicle and to the barrier.

FIG. 8 shows two barriers 100 and 102 interlocked by a J hook mode formed steel connection coupling 104 (one hook mates with another hook on opposing barriers 100 and 102. The hooks 46 are preferably embedded in the confinement vertical channel groove 38, as shown in FIG. 3, such that when barrier 100 is joined to barrier 102, there is very limited space between the end of barrier 100 and the end of barrier 102 (e.g., an inch or less).

FIG. 5 shows the two barriers 100 and 102 interlocked by the hook mode formed steel connection coupling 104, as discussed in conjunction with FIG. 8, but from a side view perspective. As the front faces are flat at the top and then tapered downward as shown in FIG. 6, in conjunction with region 49 for the tapered bottom and region 47 for the flat top, a V-shaped space 106 is created at the bottom of the interlocked barriers 100 and 102. This allows for more easily connecting the J-hooks and placing the barriers 100 and 102 end to end. In addition, it allows for a small amount of horizontal and vertical adjustment between the two barriers 100 and 102. Preferably, the angle of the V-shape is 5 degrees or less.

An exemplary use of an interlocking highway barrier system according to the present invention. Specifically, one barrier system of a plurality of barrier sections can line a side of a road. Because the height of the barrier system is relatively lower, the driver of a car can readily see the cross traffic situation. Similarly, on the same road, a work site could employ another barrier system to protect workers beside the road.