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American Traffic Safety Services Association
MEMBER COMPANY
NEWS
Positive Protection: Helping to Keep
Workers and Motorists out of Danger
Positive protection can help reduce the risk of accidents, injuries and death to both roadway workers and
motorists. By containing and redirecting vehicles and reducing the risk of vehicle intrusion into the
worksite, these devices offer protection by using various types of barriers, shadow vehicles with
energy-absorbing attenuators and vehicle-arresting systems. Several ATSSA member companies are
on the cutting-edge of this technology and have created products that make roads safer for workers
and travelers—striving Toward Zero Deaths.
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Mobile Barriers — MBT-1
Mobile Barriers MBT-1 has proven that efficiency and safety on the road are what
the product does best. The perfect tool for various types of road, bridge and tunnel
work, the MBT-1 is credited with improving worker safety and efficiency, while also
ensuring the safety and mobility of traffic in and around work zones.
Consisting of five-foot-high walls and integrated power, lighting, signage and truck-mounted attenuators
(TMA), the MBT-1 is driven to the site with no special setup. Meanwhile, the barrier’s storage areas and
surface decks can carry tools, equipment, materials and supplies to and from the site. Its highly mobile,
integrated protection is ideal for work zones. The fact that it reduces the amount of time workers are in
the lane and traffic is impeded is an added benefit.
MBT-1 barriers are mobilized using tractor-trailer trucks. After arriving on site, the barriers are
positioned as needed and shield roadside workers from passing traffic. The barriers can be either parked
or pulled along the roadway until the work is completed. The integrated, highly mobile nature of the
barrier has, in some instances, allowed crews to complete work in one-third of the time it took behind
cones and with protection not previously practical with concrete barrier.
The MBT-1 barriers have received awards and international acclaim for improving worker safety while
reducing the number of roadside vehicles, lane closures and time needed to return roadways to their
normal operating capacity.
“Prior to the MBT-1, it was often not practical to set up protection and separate the workers and the
traveling public,” said Kevin Groeneweg, CEO of Mobile Barriers, LLC. “To the extent there were only
cones separating the two, there were more distractions, which all too often led to slowing and accidents.
Mobile Barriers MBT-1 allows users to streamline the entire process. It pulls in place, and crews can go
to work. Later, it allows users to quickly reopen the road for rush hour before most people even realize
we were there.”
Federally required crash tests showed that the barrier can effectively redirect and absorb the impact
of a 2.5-ton vehicle—passenger vehicle or a pickup truck—traveling more than 60 miles an hour.
The MBT-1 is a quick and effective way to provide positive protection from oncoming traffic, assuring
full compliance of safety procedures among maintenance work crews.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) acquired its first MBT-1 last fall and recently
ordered six more.
“Safety is our top priority, and with these barriers, our workers are surrounded by a mobile, protective
environment that allows them to get the job done more quickly and safely than would be possible with just
cones,” said John Barton, TxDOT deputy executive director. “There’s no better way to reduce work zone
accidents and improve conditions for everyone than to safely complete the work as quickly as possible
and reopen the roadway to normal traffic flow.”
Eric Hemphill, PE, director of maintenance for the North Texas Tollway Authority, said the roadway
crews in some areas will not work without the MBT-1 in place. Crews were coming in earlier and earlier
to work to “borrow” them from other crews so they would have them for the day.
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For information about Mobile Barriers MBT-1, visit
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