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Encyclopedia > Runaway truck ramp
A runaway truck ramp on U.S. Route 60, before a left turn.
A runaway truck ramp on U.S. Route 60, before a left turn.
An arrester bed in Western Australia, located at the bottom of a hill before an intersection.
An arrester bed in Western Australia, located at the bottom of a hill before an intersection.

A runaway truck ramp, runaway truck lane, emergency escape ramp or truck arrester bed is a traffic device that enables vehicles that are having braking problems to safely stop. It is typically a long, gravel-filled lane adjacent to a road with a steep grade, and is designed to accommodate large trucks. The deep gravel allows the truck's momentum to be dissipated in a controlled and relatively harmless way, allowing the operator to stop it safely. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 380 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) 07:21, 18 April 2006 . ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 380 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) 07:21, 18 April 2006 . ... U.S. Highway 60 is an east-west United States highway, running 2,670 miles (4,300 km) from Virginia to Arizona. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 719 KB) Summary Vcxlor, Public Domain Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Great Eastern Highway Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 719 KB) Summary Vcxlor, Public Domain Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Great Eastern Highway Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Capital Perth Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Ken Michael Premier Alan Carpenter (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 15  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $100,900 (4th)  - Product per capita  $50,355/person (3rd) Population (December 2006)  - Population  2,050,900 (4th)  - Density  0. ... Gravel being unloaded from a barge Gravel is rock that is of a certain grain size range. ... A grade (or gradient) is the pitch of a slope, and is often expressed as a percent tangent, or rise over run. It is used to express the steepness of slope on a hill, roof, or road, where zero indicates level (with respect to gravity) and increasing numbers correlate to... Trucks can refer to several things: The plural of: Truck, the motorized vehicle Truck, other uses of the singular As a name: Trucks was a rock band Trucks is a short story by Stephen King Trucks is a movie based on the Stephen King short story Trucks! is a television...

Contents

Design

Emergency escape ramps are typically located in mountainous areas which attract high construction costs and present difficult site selection.[1] Designs include:

  • Arrester bed (see below): a gravel-filled ramp adjacent to the road that uses rolling resistance to stop the vehicle.
  • Gravity escape ramp: a long upwardly-inclined path parallel to the road. A large length is required, control can be difficult for the driver, including rollback after the vehicle stops.
  • Sand pile escape ramp: a short length of loosely piled sand. Problems include large deceleration and the sand being affected by weather conditions (moisture and freezing).
  • Alternatives: such as a vehicle arresting barrier.[2]

Rolling resistance, sometimes called rolling friction, is the resistance that occurs when an object (e. ...

Location

Emergency escape ramps are usually located on steep, sustained grades, for example in mountainous areas.[1] Long descending grades allow high vehicle speeds to be reached, and truck brakes can overheat and fail through extensive use. The ramps are often built before a critical change in the curvature of the road, or before a place that may require the vehicle to stop, for example before intersections in populated areas.[2] A grade (or gradient) is the pitch of a slope, and is often expressed as a percent tangent, or rise over run. It is used to express the steepness of slope on a hill, roof, or road, where zero indicates level (with respect to gravity) and increasing numbers correlate to... A brake is a device for slowing or stopping the motion of a machine or vehicle, and to keep it from starting to move again. ...


Arrester bed

An arrester bed usually uses gravel/aggregate that imparts a rolling resistance on the vehicle that enters the bed.[1] The required length of the bed depends on the speed of the vehicle, the grade of the arrester bed, and the rolling resistance provided by the gravel.[2] Gravel being unloaded from a barge Gravel is rock that is of a certain grain size range. ...


Driver opinion

A driver will generally use such a ramp only as a last resort, as doing so in the absence of a catastrophic equipment failure constitutes an admission that the driver failed to demonstrate the skill to navigate his vehicle safely down a protracted and/or steep stretch of road, which is considered a critical skill in the profession. Of course, choosing to utilize the ramp once in such a contingency situation is far more acceptable than having a major wreck. // There are two major types of truck drivers: Owner operators are individuals that own the trucks they drive and can either lease their trucks by contract with a trucking company to haul freight for that company using their trucks or haul loads for a number of companies and is self... Catastrophic failure is a sudden and total (or near total) failure which not only cannot be recovered from (the system which experiences it may be destroyed beyond any reasonable possibility of repair), but also frequently causes injury, death, or significant damage to other, often unrelated systems. ...


References

  1. ^ a b c DOT Arizona (May-June 1993). "Full-Scale Arrester Bed Testing Leads to More Cost-Effective Design" (pdf). TR News (166): 20-21. Retrieved on 2006-07-23. 
  2. ^ a b c (May 2006) Design Manual - Auxiliary Lanes (pdf), Washington State Department of Transportation, Chapter 1010, pp. 4-5. 

For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... July 23 is the 204th day (205th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 161 days remaining. ... The Washington State Department of Transportation, or WSDOT, led by a Secretary and overseen by the Governor, is a Washington governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of the states transportation infrastructure. ...

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