Barricades and channelizers do important work. They mark closures, signal lane shifts, and show drivers where to go through a work zone. Every traffic management plan uses them.
They do not stop vehicles.
What a barricade does on impact
A barricade is light and portable. That is the point: crews can place and move them quickly. It also means a barricade shifts or collapses when a vehicle hits it. There is no mechanism for managing collision forces, so there is no containment and no redirection. On urban and arterial roads, and especially on high-speed roads and highways, that gap matters.
Channelizers have the same limit
Channelizers are built from flexible materials so they survive minor hits and spring back into place. That makes them effective for guiding traffic and marking lane shifts. It does not make them capable of redirecting an errant vehicle. A drum or vertical panel will not protect a worker standing behind it.
Positive protection
Where workers are exposed to live traffic, the work zone needs a crash-tested barrier. Our anchored Defender steel barriers are tested to absorb and redirect collision forces, protecting vehicle occupants, road workers, and infrastructure in heavy-traffic and high-speed environments.
Use both
Channelization devices and barriers do different jobs. A sound work zone design uses barricades and channelizers to guide traffic, and crash-tested barriers to protect people where an impact would do real damage.
Talk to us
Call 888.215.4535 (North America), 1800.169.799 (Australia), or 09.950.7186 (New Zealand), or send a message through our contact form.
