The days of wire barriers commonly referred to as “cheese cutters” which are used to separate traffic on the State’s new dual carriageways, are limited, the National Roads Authority said this morning.
But while he said the barriers “may be used less in the future”, the authority's chief executive Fred Barry defended their safety role and said they did not behave as cheese cutters, in the event of a crash.
He added that the wire barriers which are held in place on poles were not used on roads where the speed limit was 120 km/hr, but confined to roads where the speed limit was 100km/hr or less.
Mr Barry told the Oireachtas committee on Transport the authority knew the barriers were popularly referred to as cheese cutters, but he said the authority knew of “no instances of anywhere in the world” where the cheese cutter effect had been experienced.
Rather, Mr Barry said the authority had noticed the wires and stakes needed much more maintenance that traditional concrete block barriers used on faster dual carriageways and motorways. Because of this the wire barriers could work out more expensive in the long run.
“They may be used less in the future” he concluded.
