A1(M) Darlington Crash Barriers

[JammyDodge]

Having recently driven through during the day I have noticed that since the crash barriers have been replaced on this stretch that there is now a black and white checkered pattern on the inside of the 2 curves where it crosses the Tees

Have to say I found it quite distracting with this flashing past out the corner of my eye. The 1st time it took me about 20s to figure out what the hell it was, distracting me from the road.

I can understand the reason this might have been done, but at the same time, why?

[KeithW]

see
https://www.newtonnews.co.uk/bridge-bar ... arlington/

[SteelCamel]

If you're talking about the black and white stripes here it's not new. At one time it was quite common to paint barriers (and kerbs) like this for better visibility, but this hasn't been the case for many years. In fact you can see that repairs have just used plain unpainted metal, leaving it a bit of a patchwork.
Have they replaced the barriers with new painted ones? If so I wonder why - it's not a current standard, and would be a lot of work to paint them. The Google view from May 2023 shows new unpainted barriers, so they must have been painted afterwards.

[JammyDodge]

If you're talking about the black and white stripes here it's not new. At one time it was quite common to paint barriers (and kerbs) like this for better visibility, but this hasn't been the case for many years. In fact you can see that repairs have just used plain unpainted metal, leaving it a bit of a patchwork.
Have they replaced the barriers with new painted ones? If so I wonder why - it's not a current standard, and would be a lot of work to paint them. The Google view from May 2023 shows new unpainted barriers, so they must have been painted afterwards.

I can now see that they have been there before. Probably couldn't notice because it was so faded

[Chris Bertram]

If you're talking about the black and white stripes here it's not new. At one time it was quite common to paint barriers (and kerbs) like this for better visibility, but this hasn't been the case for many years. In fact you can see that repairs have just used plain unpainted metal, leaving it a bit of a patchwork.
Have they replaced the barriers with new painted ones? If so I wonder why - it's not a current standard, and would be a lot of work to paint them. The Google view from May 2023 shows new unpainted barriers, so they must have been painted afterwards.

In Norn Iron, kerbs are sometimes painted red white and blue, but possibly not for the same reason.

[MotorwayGuy]

The slip roads on the M2 at junction 5 used to have them, but they have recently been replaced. Junction 6 still has some intact but it is hardly visible now. I believe the original slip roads at junction 2 that were similar to those at 5 and 6 also had them.

[orudge]

The A90 has the same black and white painted central barriers at the sharpish bend just south of the River South Esk bridge at Finavon.

[nowster]

In Norn Iron, kerbs are sometimes painted red white and blue, but possibly not for the same reason.

Except for a very very few places where they're painted Green/White/Orange. (I only saw this in Toome Bridge in the early 1990s... but there's a heck of a story to that day.)

[Dougman]

Good old Barriermatic used to be all the rage back in the day.