Impact-absorbing barriers for highways
OwnerNormand Bernaquez, Ivan Sabourininventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The road-guard construction comprises a first wall of superimposed whole tires disposed horizontally in vertical rows and horizontal columns. A second wall of superimposed half tires--which are cut circumferentially along their tread path, is also disposed in vertical rows and horizontal columns. Each half-tire defines a toroidal chamber, facing upwardly. Tie-bands interconnect the whole tires to the half-tires, whereby a single integral wall unit is achieved. Sand is poured into the toroidal chambers of the half-tires, whereby the first and second walls become firmly anchored to the ground. The road-guard will therefore remain substantially immobile over ground even after repeated vehicle impacts.
Claims13
An upright wall construction for absorbing transverse impacting blows, comprising:
- (a) a first wall of superimposed whole tires disposed horizontally in vertical rows and horizontal columns, each said whole tire defining a tread band, said first wall adapted to directly sustain the impact blows about free outer tread band sections thereof;
- (b) a second wall of superimposed half tires cut circumferentially along their tread path, also disposed horizontally in vertical rows and horizontal columns, each said half-tire defining a toroidal chamber, said toroidal chamber opening upwardly;
- (c) means for interconnecting said whole tires and said half-tires, whereby said first and second walls form a single integral wall unit;
- and
- (d) means for filling at least several of said upwardly facing half-tire toroidal chambers with a high-density material, whereby said first and second walls become firmly anchored to the ground;
- wherein said wall construction will remain substantially immobile over ground even after repeated impact blows.
An upright wall construction as defined in claim 6, wherein said tire interconnecting means further includes third tie-band means, for interconnecting in substantial contacting engagement the tread bands of each pair of adjacent said half tires from a horizontally registering horizontal column thereof to one another.
A method of construction of a ground-anchored wall construction, said wall construction being made of a first wall of whole tires and of a second wall of upwardly facing, sand-filled half-tires;
- wherein the method of construction includes the following steps:
- (a) laying a first lowermost horizontal row of half-tires over ground;
- (b) filling the upwardly facing toroidal chambers of said half-tires with sand;
- (c) laying a second lowermost horizontal row of half-tires over said first horizontal row;
- (d) filling the upwardly facing toroidal chambers of said half-tires of the second row with sand;
- (e) laying at least one additional horizontal row of half-tires over said second lowermost horizontal row of half-tires;
- (f) filling with sand the toroidal chambers of said half-tires of said at least one additional horizontal row;
- (g) vertically stacking a plurality of horizontal rows of whole tires against the vertically stacked said horizontal rows of half-tires;
- and
- (h) attaching selected said whole tires from a given horizontal row of whole tires to selected horizontally registering said half-tires;
- wherein a unitary immobile double wall construction is achieved.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.