A semi-rigid road barrier providing controlled dissipation of impact energy and attitude correction

摘要

On each upright (13) is pivoted a pair of energy-dissipating plates (32) connected to a shaped attachment element (26) of the rail (10) by two vertically-spaced couplings (38, 29; 38, 30). These include a partition (38) adapted to be sheared following an impact so as to dissipate part of the energy. The plates (32) are pivoted on a pin (43) on a strengthened portion (19) of the upright (13) and are provided with curved slots (44) engaged with another pin (47) on this portion so as to allow the plates (32) and the rail (10) to rotate should the upright (13) be bent outwards. The pins (43, 47) can slide vertically upwards in corresponding slots (21, 24) formed in the upright (13). The uprights (13) are also interconnected by a shaped elongate wheel-impact element (48) and by a rear flat rib (51) which acts as a tie bar in the case of an impact.