Trumbull getting 1st cable median rails to prevent crossover crashes on bypass

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

People who drive the state Routes 5/82 bypass around Warren may have noticed an unusual construction project taking place in the median just north of the East Market Street overpass.

The $1.2 million state-run and state-funded project will give Trumbull County its first cable median rails, and they will eventually be in place from the East Market Street overpass to the West Market Street overpass on the other side of the bypass. It is expected to be complete in late May.

A cable median rail is like a guardrail, but it goes in the median and makes use of high-tension cables attached to evenly spaced posts in the ground to protect cars from crossing the median and crashing into other vehicles.

Brent Kovacs, spokesman with the Ohio Department of Transportation, said the bypass is getting the new barriers because of three risk factors found on the Warren outerbelt: The number of crashes recorded in the past five years involving the median (at least five per year), the somewhat narrow size of the median (40 feet) and the shape of the road (curved).

Kovacs said cable median rails are more commonplace in some areas to the west of Trumbull County — such as Interstate 76 in Portage County.

The rail installations will “flip-flop” from one side of the median to the other throughout the distance covered, meaning the barrier will be constructed on one side for a distance, then stop and pick up on the other side of the median for a distance.

When a car hits the cables, the car is stopped from continuing across the highway, but the impact is much less than hitting a cement wall or other more solid barrier, Kovacs said.

Lt. Brian Holt, commander of the Southington Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, said he asked the state for the cable rails.

He said one of the reasons is that the number of median crossover crashes that have occurred there and because the median is shallower than many others that have either a “V” shaped median or hump.

“When someone is going 55 miles per hour and hits a car coming 55 miles per hour the other way, that’s like hitting a wall at 110 miles per hour, and we know that’s never good,” Holt said. “They’re designed to absorb impact. They have give to them.”

He noted the highway also has rumble strips on the edge to alert the motorist and keep him or her from hitting the cable rail. But if the car gets into the grass a few feet off the pavement, the cable rail will stop the car from crossing the median, possibly saving lives.

“The important thing is to drive according to conditions,” Holt said, adding that hitting the cable rail will cause damage to the vehicle.