Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
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Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
The fatal collision on the M4 spelled the end of them but I seem to recall more rural quieter motorways still having the cylinders well into the late 1990s. Parts of the northern end of the M6 possibly even later?
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Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
Were the central reservations significantly wider to enable this?
Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
As I recall they were replaced with sections of barrier that could be removed to turn traffic around, of course in the early days there were no central barriers.
There were also contraflows where all that acted as separation were plastic cones.
Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
No, they were the same central reservations we have now, they just had gaps in them. You can still see the crossovers in some places, but the barrier is continuous across them now.
Roads.org.uk
Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
U-turns have always been prohibited on motorways, these gaps existed purely for emergency vehicle or roadworks use.
Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already.
She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.
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Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
The split section north of Tebay has one to this day.Bryn666 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 29, 2024 17:23 They existed from day 1, when central barriers were introduced they remained but were coned off or blocked by cylinders.
The fatal collision on the M4 spelled the end of them but I seem to recall more rural quieter motorways still having the cylinders well into the late 1990s. Parts of the northern end of the M6 possibly even later?
Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
So presumably an emergency vehicle would have half of it in the carriageway whilst removing the cones or doing the turn?RichardA626 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 30, 2024 14:21 I can remember some of the gaps were coned off until the late 1990s. I can remember one clip from Police Camera Action where someone attempted a U turn by removing the cones.
Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
I always wonder about the legality (as opposed to practicality!) of using it. I noticed that Google Maps had directed me on to it once when I accidentally attempted to navigate to the wrong side of Tebay Services.solocle wrote: ↑Sat Mar 30, 2024 14:38The split section north of Tebay has one to this day.Bryn666 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 29, 2024 17:23 They existed from day 1, when central barriers were introduced they remained but were coned off or blocked by cylinders.
The fatal collision on the M4 spelled the end of them but I seem to recall more rural quieter motorways still having the cylinders well into the late 1990s. Parts of the northern end of the M6 possibly even later?
Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
I can't actually think of anything that would make it outright illegal to use, I guess an argument could be made if anything about the "vehicles to be driven on the carriageway only" part of the MT(E&W)R as there's a solid line denoting the edge of the carriageway.jnty wrote: ↑Sat Mar 30, 2024 19:24I always wonder about the legality (as opposed to practicality!) of using it. I noticed that Google Maps had directed me on to it once when I accidentally attempted to navigate to the wrong side of Tebay Services.solocle wrote: ↑Sat Mar 30, 2024 14:38The split section north of Tebay has one to this day.Bryn666 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 29, 2024 17:23 They existed from day 1, when central barriers were introduced they remained but were coned off or blocked by cylinders.
The fatal collision on the M4 spelled the end of them but I seem to recall more rural quieter motorways still having the cylinders well into the late 1990s. Parts of the northern end of the M6 possibly even later?
Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
No U-turns on Motorways (however you do it) is a strict liability offence. It used to be one of the conditions stated in the early days when the restrictions were spelled out in text at the entrance, on the predecessor to the Chopsticks sign.
Back in the 1980s, many of the emergency crossings were substantially rebuilt and lengthened to suit higher crossover speeds and more protective guard rail between opposing directions in contraflows. Then there was a further change of policy, and contraflows dropped out of favour.
Re: Emergency crossing points on motorway carriageways
What I found interesting is has been said there is no signed prohibition. At that point one the M6 the northbound and southbound carriage ways are widely separated with an unclassified road running under the M6 and then running between the Northbound and Southbound carriageways.https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14197 wrote: by M60-Tony » Mon Jan 22, 2007 20:44
You're correct Glenn. There were 3 small reflective markers on the central barrier posts counting down to the cross-over. I recall seeing them and being told what they were at a talk given by motorway police in the very late 80s or early 90s.
With the closing of all (?) such crossing points I haven't seen such markers for many a year. Though I could envisage some possibly surviving in odd remote bits of motorway.
Edit:
Found this 2006 ACPO document link. In it it says
2.6 MOTORWAY EMERGENCY CROSSING POINT
An emergency crossing point is a gap in the central reservation barrier. Very few of these remain on the motorway network, however, because of the significant risks associated with using them.
Emergency crossing points should only be used by the emergency services and HATOs, and only in extreme circumstances.
The onus for carrying out such a manoeuvre safely is always on the driver, and all necessary care must be taken.
It may be considered inappropriate to use crossing points during normal traffic flows. A short cut may be used instead. A short cut is a link road provided to reduce the distance travelled by emergency services attending incidents. Short cuts can provide easy access to the opposite carriageways on certain sections of the motorway between junctions.
So there are some around still, even HATOs may choose to use them.
The signs have seen better days. They look to be the same ones that were there in 1969 when the M6 was under construction.
https://www.google.com/maps/@54.4614834 ... &entry=ttu
Follow it and it ends on T junction which the B6261 which then joins the A6 about 1.5 miles from Shap. The B6261 was there long before the M6 and has the distinction of being primary.
https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/ind ... itle=B6261
From the SABRE Wiki: B6261 :
The B6261 is a rural B-road in central Westmorland, famous for being in part a primary B-road and also for including a stretch which runs between the two carriageways of a motorway. The route starts to the south of Shap, at an eastbound turn off the A6. Road signs and mapping here both suggest that the B6261 from here to J39 of the M6 is actually a [[Primary