5 Things You Should Know About F-Shape Barrier Wall
The F-shape barrier is a concrete crash barrier used to divide lanes of traffic on a highway. Much like the widely-used Jersey barriers, F-shape barriers are designed to prevent head-on collisions while at the same time minimizing damage to incoming vehicles and preventing vehicle rollovers. F-shape barriers were designed as a modification on the Jersey barrier and are generally considered safer, though they are not as widely used.
1) F-Shape Barriers are Not Jersey Barriers (But They’re Similar)
Before the concrete highway barrier, wooden guardrails were used to divide lanes of highway traffic. Though these wooden beams managed to stop small accidents, they weren’t all that effective in preventing serious head-on collisions, since vehicles could easily crash through the wood at high speeds. As a solution, the first concrete road barriers were introduced in California in 1946, and their design was quickly adapted and improved by the state of New Jersey. Today, we call these barriers "Jersey barriers", and they’re the most widely used concrete barriers on highways and in road construction.
The F-shape barrier serves all the same functions as a Jersey barrier, and is in fact merely an improvement on the Jersey barrier’s design. F-shape barriers are generally better at preventing rollover accidents and are considered safer.
2) F-Shape Barriers Are Safer than Jersey Barriers
When Jersey barriers were introduced, they were designed not only to stop head-on collisions, but also to minimize the damage to incoming cars. In shallow-angle hits, a car’s tires will ride up the sloped face of the barrier, which forces the car to pivot away from oncoming traffic and back into its original direction. Furthermore, this “slide” prevents vehicles from rolling over. The problem is that if a car is too small, Jersey barriers are less effective, and the car might roll over anyway. For this reason, the F-shape barrier was created.
At a glance, F-shape barriers and Jersey barriers look the same. They both have the same 3-inch-high base and feature a sloping side. The difference is that the F-shape barrier features a side that slopes 10 inches above the pavement, while the Jersey barrier has a 13-inch slope. This three inch difference allows the F-shape barrier to better absorb proportional impacts from smaller vehicles. A series of studies (both computer simulated tests and real-life, full-scale crash tests) have proven that this tweak to the F-shape barrier design does indeed improve performance.
3) The F-Shape Barrier Is Not Shaped Like an F
Oddly, an F-shape barrier looks more like a T. Its name, however, isn’t arbitrary. When researchers were testing the efficacy of the F-shape barrier design, they created a series of computer simulations with profiles labeled A through F. The result showed that the profile labeled F performed better than the others (including the Jersey barrier), hence the name “F-shape.”
4) The F-Shape Barrier Is Not As Widely Used
Despite its higher safety ratings, the F-shape barrier has yet to supplant the Jersey barrier. Since Jersey barriers are already widely in use and meet standard crash-test criteria, state contractors choose to keep them rather than spend the money replacing them. Similarly, most states have already invested in the Jersey-shape casting forms, and states believe that changing the profiles would cost too much money.
5) Jersey Barriers Can Be Modified Into an F-Shape
Jersey barriers and F-shape barriers are similar in design—it’s only the distance from the ground to their slope break points that differs. (The break point of the F-shape is 10 inches, while the Jersey barrier break point is 13 inches). This lower slope break point is what reduces a vehicle’s lift and therefore reduces the chance of a rollover.
Because the two designs are so similar, asphalt resurfacing can convert the Jersey shape barrier into a more F-shape-like barrier that is safer for smaller cars. The only issue is that increasing the layers of asphalt will reduce the working height of the barrier, which in turn reduces its effectiveness for larger vehicles.
To learn more about other types of barrier wall, check out this blog on "Barrier Wall Styles and Uses."
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