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Dangerous flyovers
Page 38
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IT MAY seem unnecessary at this season of the year to go on about dangerous road conditions in winter.
Yet, this is precisely the time when we should be agitating for some urgent attention to be given to the safety of road surfaces over flyovers. We might thus be prepared for the wintry blasts of the future. The past winter has been exceptionally bad, and has shown up faults, which in normal winters are minimal.
Most flyovers do present hazards at some time in winter. A number have been provided with under-surface heating in the quest for safety, but often they are out of order, and at least one has never worked.
One local authority has been pressing for an ice alert system on flyovers, and appears to be achieving some success. Sensors are to be used to detect temperature and humidity likely to cause icing on flyovers, and flashing warning signs will be used to advise drivers of the hazard. It is hoped that a link-up may be made to have the signals relayed to local authority control centres for monitoring.
There is no doubt that the accident toll on flyovers is increasing yearly. Unfortunately, salting many flyovers has proved to be a waste of time and material because the salt is frequently blown away before it can disperse the ice. Pile-ups are bad enough on the flat, but they are doubly dangerous when they occur high up on a flyover, and there was too much evidence of this during the recent bad weather.
From the information available, it seems that the powersthat-be are not in favour of under-surface heating on new flyovers. If this is so, it is time an ice alert system was introduced.
NIGEL BREEZE, Southend-on-Sea,