Median Barriers

In order to prevent people from being killed or seriously injured in head-on traffic accidents, an increasing number of roads in Sweden have been provided with median barriers.

Median barriers are being erected on both existing roads as well as newly constructed roads. They are to be found on different types of roads, such as motorways and 2+1-lane roads. 2+1-lane roads have an interchanging sequence of two lanes in one direction and one lane in the other, and a barrier between the two directions of travel.

In summer 1998, the first median barrier was erected as a pilot test on a stretch of road that had previously been subject to a large number of fatal accidents. The test was greeted with considerable scepticism, but the solution proved to function extremely well in connection with the avoidance of head-on collisions.