Quick barriers for vehicles

But there is also a need for temporary barriers, whether for temporary car parks, army encampments or conferences held in rural locations for various heads of state. These events are held in the countryside to provide an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity – which is ruined if the location is protected by barbed wire and armed police. The Challenge Our challenge this month is to come up with a method of controlling the access of vehicles passing down a street, or entering or leaving an area. It should be sufficiently robust to stop a four-wheel drive or truck, but portable enough to install and remove quickly. As always, it should be as simple as possible, reliable, durable and low cost. It should also be obvious – so that nobody runs into it accidentally. At the same time, it must stop a vehicle quickly, while causing minimal harm to the vehicle occupants. If possible it should be bi-directional, to control vehicles coming from either direction. The solution offered solves the problem elegantly and at remarkably low cost. Once you see it, you will consider it obvious, except that it is innovative enough to be protected by patent application. Solution to Coffee-time Challenge The solution to our December 2006 challenge comes from building engineer Robert Siddall, who lives in Pontypridd in South Wales. His idea is a construction that looks rather like traffic humps on a road surface, or which can be installed in a shallow pit in a carriageway. In both cases, the surfaces consist of steel flaps that either lie down, resting on supports, or hinge up to form fins. Suitably painted, the fins are pretty obvious, and should anyone attempt to drive through them, will cut into axes and bodywork. They will also buckle and absorb impact, so as to prevent injury to the occupants of the vehicle. They can be transported in the back of a pick up truck, and installed quickly, by bolting them down on a road or drive surface. When no longer needed, they can be taken up, removed and used elsewhere. The idea exists presently as a computer simulation and models. The method of supporting the plates in the down condition allows them to support a fairly heavy load – such as a car driving over them. Mr Siddall is looking for a manufacturer to licence the idea. He is supported by the Wales Innovators Network