Jersey project (http://www.lifeproject-newjersey.com/) is a Life+ project which main objective is to demonstrate and validate a new generation of eco-friendly safety barriers with improved impact absorption performance made of recycled rubber, recycled plastics and concrete, by means of developing, designing and manufacturing the barriers and later on testing, demonstrating and validating them in a real road stretch.
Every day 3,6 people die at Spanish roads, as announced by the Dirección General de Tráfico. Though this figure is considerably lower than the 2000 average, there is still a long way to go to reach our complete safety. A good alternative to mitigate accidents and injuries is the improvement of the dampening properties of safety barriers, decreasing their stiffness and increasing the energy absorption. Moreover, if recycled rubber in form of end of life tires (ELT’s) and secondary plastics are part of the equation, then you have a safer and eco friendly barrier, which is exactly New Jersey’s main goal.
New Jersey project Consortium consists of: the Dirección General de Carreteras de la Comunidad de Madrid, Acciona Infraestructuras, Signus Ecovalor, Cidaut and the European Union Road Federation (ERF). Together, New Jersey partners have undertaken the study of the amount of rubber that can be added in the barrier, and how to include it; and the development of a elastic cover for the used rubber. Two prototypes were designed in the project and scale models of the two types of barriers have been designed, and manufactured.
Prototype 1 consists of a New Jersey Barrier with a coating of ELTs, plastics and Resins. For this prototype a material analysis was performed. Different designs were proposed and evaluated and then real scale prototypes were manufactured. Finally, EN 1317 crash test ended on July 2013.
For this prototype a material analysis was performed as well, and then a barrier was designed and produced. A summary of the results of the tests can be found on the project website (http://www.lifeproject-newjersey.com/activities.php).
Ongoing work currently focuses on prototype 2 (mixed concrete with ELTs). Prior to evaluating Prototype 2 behaviour on full scale vehicle crash test, according to EN 1317, during the month of May, several pendulum dynamic tests have been performed to evaluate impact behaviour of selected mixed concrete with ELTs formulation. (http://www.lifeproject-newjersey.com/images/ACTION32.pdf)
