Sunday, April 19, 2009

How do Jersey Wall movers (zippers) work?

I%26#039;m vacationing in California and I saw something pretty amazing! There%26#039;s a machine that moves the concrete Jersey wall that divides the highway lanes. The Jersey wall has been previously cut into blocks. The machine moves along the road on a track over the blocks and moves the blocks of concrete. It makes three lanes in the morning going in one direction and moves the wall to make three walls in the other direction in the afternoon. It%26#039;s on a bridge out here. I%26#039;ve never seen anything like it! It%26#039;s really neat to see! There%26#039;s no stopping allowed on the bridge so I couldn%26#039;t get a very good picture of it. I did get a pretty good picture of the concrete blocks that it picks up. I can%26#039;t find any information on it anywhere on the %26#039;net. Does anybody know how this machine works? Help! I%26#039;m really curious.

How do Jersey Wall movers (zippers) work?
The machine the picks up and moves the blocks works similar to a dry cleaners rach system. As the machine moves forward, it picks up the block, suspends it from under the machine, and carries it to the opposite side of the machine on a diagonal, where it sets it back down, a full lane width away. I%26#039;ve seen them used in California and in Hawaii, where it is not practical (or there are too many constraints) to build new travel lanes. The reversable lane lets you optimize the capacity that the highway or bridge already has to carry traffic, by increasing the number of lanes of traffic in the peak direction.



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