Metal crash barriers to reduce fatalities on Mumbai-Pune Expressway

To reduce fatalities on the signature Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) will install metal crash barriers on both sides of the road.

Vijay Patil, superintendent of police, highway police, said they had written to MSRDC asking them to install metal crash barriers on both sides of the expressway. “Though brifen wire ropes had been installed, the experiment was not successful. Though these ropes reduced the impact for crashing vehicles, the barriers were damaged,” he added.

The 94-km expressway suffers from falling service levels due to rising traffic load and lack of capacity expansion.

“We have decided to install metal crash barriers after our experiment with brifen rope crash barriers found they are more costlier. They work the same as brifen crash barrier but are economically feasible,” said a senior MSRDC official.

“As per guidelines, we have had three types of fencing installed on the expressway and that includes brifen, metal and that made of cement. For the ghat section  we are planning cement crash barriers and for the rest of the stretch we are going ahead with metal crash barrier and we have already completed barricading 20-km of the stretch with metal crash barrier,” he said.