Motorway Barrier

Squidvicious

This is an issue which bothers me whenever I'm driving on any of the more recent "Celtic Tiger" motorways. Or at least, the one which I drive most often, the Waterford/Dublin M9.

The central barrier on most of the M9 is effectively a two-foot high(at least) concrete wall. I reckon that most wildlife trying to cross a motorway a night(daytime would be suicide given traffic volumes) would find it too high to climb over. I'm thinking of smaller animals like hedgehogs, but larger animals wouldn't find it easy either, e.g. Badgers. The older motorways have a metal barrier, but this was raised, so animals could get under it. I see similar unbroken central barriers on some of the new town/city by-passes. These new unbroken barriers seem unnecessary to me as other countries seem to have motorways that are not unbroken barriers.

Why does this bother me? Apart from possibly causing increased road kill as animals can't cross the motorways, will it impede the natural spread of animals? For example, the Pine Marten has seen substantial population increases in the Midlands which has reduced Grey Squirrel numbers there. Will the spread of the Pine Marten to areas East of the M9 be prevented? Will these barriers lead to isolation of populations? Or am I worrying about nothing:rolleyes:?

Half-cocked

Don't know how successful or how widely implemented, but there are supposed to be tunnels under the motorways for wildlife to use.

Squidvicious

Half-cocked wrote: »

Don't know how successful or how widely implemented, but there are supposed to be tunnels under the motorways for wildlife to use.

And admittedly there are also bridges which should reduce the problem. However, the simplest and cost free thing would simply have been to leave small gaps between the concrete barriers

baaba maal

I've been thinking the exact same thing- I'm familiar with the M9 and the concrete wall along it must be having an effect. The only breaks are at junctions- themselves a dangerous part of the world for wildlife. The annoying thing is, the walls are made of concrete poured into a mould (I think it's called 'slipform'). You can see the small drainage pipes (four inch pipe or so- too small for a lot of wildlife) are inserted along the length of it- and it would have been possible to put larger pipes into the wall when they were building it, even saving on concrete!
There are a small number of wildlife tunnels but only where surveying showed the presence of a nearby sett or similar. By comparison, google "motorways and wildlife corridors" for some stunning examples of green bridges across motorways.

Jayzesake

Squidvicious wrote: »

Will these barriers lead to isolation of populations? Or am I worrying about nothing:rolleyes:?

You are absolutely right to be concerned. Roads in general, and motorways in particular, are very definitely a major factor in fragmenting wildlife populations, along with towns, industrial estates, even agricultural fields, etc.; in short, all those areas of land made to serve almost entirely our species' needs (i.e. almost all of the land, in countries like Ireland).

As you say, this can isolate populations, in some cases making them genetically unviable, and can prevent species from recolonising areas where they had previously been driven out.

Wilson and MacArthurs' Theory of Island Biogeography * (not really a theory nowadays, more an accepted fact) is reason enough to have very serious concerns about the degree to which remnants of natural habitat are continually becoming more and more isolated from one another due to human activity, here in Ireland and elsewhere.

* That the number of species on an island decreases according to its relative size. In many ways fragments of habitat behave much like islands in the sea, so the theory is highly relevant to fragmentation of habitat.

Squidvicious

You wonder how or why such a barrier was built? Presumably, qualified people were paid to carry out environmental impact statements? Any motorway will have certain adverse effects on wildlife. However, I accept that motorways are a necessary evil. The frustrating thing here is that this particular problem appears to be utterly needless. Presumably, nothing will be done about it at this stage or are any of our environmental/wildlife organisations trying to resolve the problem?

magicbastarder

i've seen this on what was clearly an upgrade of an existing road (the road to mullingar, IIRC) and i would very much doubt if there was a redesign of the road bed to allow wildlife tunnels.

baaba maal

The older type of barrier is the twisted metal cable (many since masked by hedges planted to reduce glare from the other side of the motorway). These are deemed to be ok where they exist but motorways built after a certain year use the higher spec (from a safety point of view) concrete. The walls are designed to 'bounce' crashing vehicles back into their own side of the motorway. A lot of crashes where the cables exist involve vehicles crossing over after going over the cables.
None of this of course precludes the addition of wildlife corridors being included at the design stage- just giving the rationale for the concrete.

As an aside, the attenuation ponds (they're to catch rainwater from the road and slow it down before it enters the nearest stream) built along the motorways (and some national routes) would appear in some cases to be staying wet all year- accidental habitats for sure, but welcome nonetheless.

Zoo4m8

Attenuation ponds... So that's what they are, often wondered..there seems to be quite a number of them on the newer parts of the Dublin/Limerick motorway particularly from Mountrath on, new habitats indeed but as attenuation ponds they will collect mud, gravel etc from the roads so I wonder will they have to be cleaned out from time to time? Potentially taking any resident pond life with it..

baaba maal

Yes, they will eventually, but I suppose this is no different to farmers periodically clearing out ditches and much of the wildlife will eventually return. There's one on the link road to Athy from the M9 where a person living nearby commandeered one pond for his ducks! It eventually dried out though.

Capercaillie

Squidvicious wrote: »

This is an issue which bothers me whenever I'm driving on any of the more recent "Celtic Tiger" motorways. Or at least, the one which I drive most often, the Waterford/Dublin M9.

The central barrier on most of the M9 is effectively a two-foot high(at least) concrete wall. I reckon that most wildlife trying to cross a motorway a night(daytime would be suicide given traffic volumes) would find it too high to climb over. I'm thinking of smaller animals like hedgehogs, but larger animals wouldn't find it easy either, e.g. Badgers. The older motorways have a metal barrier, but this was raised, so animals could get under it. I see similar unbroken central barriers on some of the new town/city by-passes. These new unbroken barriers seem unnecessary to me as other countries seem to have motorways that are not unbroken barriers.

Why does this bother me? Apart from possibly causing increased road kill as animals can't cross the motorways, will it impede the natural spread of animals? For example, the Pine Marten has seen substantial population increases in the Midlands which has reduced Grey Squirrel numbers there. Will the spread of the Pine Marten to areas East of the M9 be prevented? Will these barriers lead to isolation of populations? Or am I worrying about nothing:rolleyes:?

Pine Martin would have no trouble in jumping over IMO. They are great climbers after all. The barriers are a death trap to small mammals like hedgehogs and badgers. No consideration for wildlife in this Country, unlike some Countries who go to great length.

jmkennedyie

On the other hand gaps in barriers could encourage wildlife to cross roads which would increase human as well as wildlife deaths at motorway speeds. I have followed recent motorway developments and seen some mammal passes, fencing designed to funnel animals to tunnels, ledges on water culverts for otters, planting policies that encourage native species. Certainly lots more could be done...but some wildlife considerations are taken onboard.

Consider submitting to county development plans, local area plans, planning processes to get your concerns turned into policies and planning conditions and maybe even retrospective improvements. E.g. Kildare plan currently in development: http://kildare.ie/CountyCouncil/Planning/DevelopmentPlans/KildareCountyDevelopmentPlan2017-2023/

Folks on Road & infrastructure fora may be able to advise re influencing NRA and national road and urban design guidelines.

Half-cocked

I thought I'd revive this thread because I've been doing a lot of motorway driving recently. There are a large number of man-made ponds adjacent to motorways, I think they are something to do with road drainage. They are all fenced off with no public access. It seems to me that they might be providing a network of excellent pond life habitats - motorways not all bad! I wonder if anyone is surveying these habitats?

baaba maal

Half-cocked wrote: »

I thought I'd revive this thread because I've been doing a lot of motorway driving recently. There are a large number of man-made ponds adjacent to motorways, I think they are something to do with road drainage. They are all fenced off with no public access. It seems to me that they might be providing a network of excellent pond life habitats - motorways not all bad! I wonder if anyone is surveying these habitats?

Check my post above on the attenuation ponds! In terms of surveying, the NRA may be doing so itself or will have been involved if anyone else is surveying.

Capercaillie

Saw three young badgers dead on M7 today. It was on a stretch which had wooden fencing on left and motorway barrier on right. No escape for a frightened animal.

muddle84

The concrete barriers are for safety the same as all safety barrier designs. The big advantage with them over the steel Armco barriers and the steel rope wires is the fact that they are zero maintenance. If a driver falls asleep and drifts into a concrete barrier they loose a bit of paint and carry on their way. If the same situation arises on a road with steel rope or Armco barriers, the car will get a lot of damage and won't be able to carry on there way. Then the barriers have to be repaired/replaced.
For the Armco barriers, the fast lane has to be closed, the old posts dug out and replaced with new ones and the new barriers bolted onto the new posts.
For the steel wires, the tension has to be let go from that particular section. I think they have a tension point every 500m or it could be a kilometre. I'm not sure. Then the bent posts have to be dug out and replaced, then the wire replaced into the posts and re-tensioned again.

The height of the barrier is usually 900 to 930mm above finished road level. One of the reasons the barrier is so good at deflecting traffic( including artic lorries) is that its basically all one piece so is very well anchored. If there was a gap every 100m or so, this would compromise this aspect of the wall.

But I agree with you all that its not very animal friendly but considering the whole idea of a motorway( large volumes of traffic moving at speeds up to 120km/hr) its not going to be a animal friendly environment regardless of the barrier in the middle of the road. I rather see a concrete wall in the middle of the road rather the other types as I know if a lorry driver falls asleep in the other carriageway, he won't be able to get through the barrier and head on collide with me. This has happened with the other barriers as they can't stop an arctic.

But the good people design motorways do think of the animals. I have worked on a lot of the big motorway contracts in the country over the last 10 years and they all had tunnels underneath the carriageways at various points along to route. These were referred to as badger passes. The idea is that the motorway would be fenced off with animal proof fencing that would lead the animals to the underpass. Check out this thread for a picture of one minus the animal proof fencing.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=67790920

This, in my opinion, is the real problem in relation to the animals. The safest place for the animals is not on the motorway especially not crossing it when there is traffic speeding past at 120km/hr. The motorway should be completely free of animals, this would be the safest way for both motorists and animals a like. The badger passes are there but the fencing is either not there in the first place or is not maintained so does not stay animal proof. The animals would find the passes if that was the only way through to the other side.