UDOT US-89 Garden City Escape Truck Ramp

This vehicle arresting barrier (VAB) is the first of its kind to bring errant vehicles to a safe, controlled stop as they impact a series of energy-absorbing nets strategically located along its length. This system incorporates three primary new design improvements that overcome the challenges posed by existing vehicle arresting technologies.

1. The first engineering improvement is using innovative tapered throat sections that occur at multiple locations along the length of the VAB. These sections were formed by the barrier’s walls and served to continuously “choke” the runaway vehicle toward the middle of the VAB. This ensures that errant vehicles properly engage each net most efficiently, protect the energy-absorbing mechanisms from a direct impact, and maximize the safety and stability of the errant vehicle as it traverses the VAB.
2. The second engineering improvement is a new connection for the net’s energy absorber housings. This connection allows the energy absorber to follow the net in both the vertical and horizontal plane as the errant vehicle traverses the VAB. In addition, this connection limits the initial shock load applied immediately upon impact by an errant vehicle.
3. The third engineering improvement incorporates a heavy-duty, high-force energy-absorbing net at the trap’s end. The design features inset pockets on the sides of the VAB’s concrete walls that house high-force energy-absorbing units. These units consume an errant vehicle’s energy through the deformation of a 50 ft long stainless-steel flat bar housed in a tube inside the concrete walls. When an errant vehicle impacts the heavy-duty net, these stainless-steel flat bars are pulled out of the wall tubes through the high-force energy-absorbing units, bringing the vehicle to a complete stop.