§ 112. Mr. Danceasked the Lord President of the Council and Minister for Science what progress the Road Research Laboratory is making into the use of anti-crash, anti-dazzle and anti-wind barriers on motorways; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HoggThe Road Research Laboratory has recently published the results of their tests on three different types of anti-crash barrier, including a steel-beam type, and two nine-mile sections of this type of barrier are now being erected as an experiment on M.1. The accident rates on these lengths of motorway will be compared with those on suitable control sections. Full-scale tests to produce a satisfactory design of a fourth, cable-type, barrier are in progress at the Road Research track at Crowthorne
Two miles of anti-dazzle fencing has been in use on the M.1 for four years. It has improved driving conditions but 116W analysis of the accident records does not reveal any marked change in the accident rate. The experiment is continuing.
No work is in hand or contemplated on anti-wind barriers because, in the view of the Laboratory, effective protection against wind could be provided only at the risk of promoting conditions which produce the alternative hazard accumulations of snow.