- Transportation Department
- FOR SAFETY: Barriers such as these can prevent deaths from cars crossing over into oncomng lanes.
The Arkansas Highway Department says it will spend $74 million over the next three years to install cable median barriers on 398 miles of freeways. The department believes it's a significant safety factor.
A before and after safety analysis of two projects that installed cable median barriers along Interstate 40 and Interstate 55 in Arkansas has revealed a significant reduction in fatal median crossover crashes. The Interstate 40 project location, located between Biscoe and Brinkley, had 10 fatal crashes in the 36 months before a cable median barrier was installed. In the 36 months after installation, the number of fatal crashes at the location dropped to zero. On Interstate 55, the number of fatal crashes dropped from two to zero after installation of a cable barrier. This substantiates multiple studies nationwide that report similar results.