In order to mitigate the risk of accidents on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) has recommended immediate removal of the barbed wire fencing fortified with guardrails on both sides of the central verge.
According to the expert agency, the arrangement is quite hazardous and could result in a catastrophe of a higher magnitude in the occurrence of a high-speed road crash. During the audit, it was found that from 2008 to 2012, 51 fatal cases were reported on the expressway and 42 cases of injuries. The fatal road crashes on the expressway are 64.2 per cent more than the other stretches in the city.
The purpose of the audit is to provide a safer journey to the road users as the 24.53 km long Noida Expressway provides the access point to the Yamuna Expressway. “Concrete Guard Rails should be first affixed with the retro reflexive tapes and then be shifted to service road provided on the left Hand Side (lHS) and Right Hand Side (RHS) of the main carriageway. These can be placed at an interval of 25 m on both sides of the service road,” suggests the report.
Apart from this, the CRRI has suggested other corrective measures to reduce the risk of high-speed car crashes. "To curb the speed of the errant vehicles and help avoiding imminent collisions, Optical Speed Bars (which are a series of pavement markings), should be used. These should be spaced at 4 m interval perpendicular to the median edge lines and are known to curtail the nasty speed-related crashes, as they create a visual and a slight bumping effect that prompts drivers to slow down. In addition, the continuous edge line marking of the median shall be further fortified with the provision of retro reflective road studs (preferably Solar Cell studs), which can aid in case of any errant vehicle overshooting the edge line on the median side," states the report further.
To obviate pedestrian accidents, the expert body has recommended providing delineators coupled with median marker on the raised median portion of the expressway. "The median portion on both directions of the expressway should be equipped with two rows of Metal Beam Crash Barriers (MCBs) so that their height is raised by 1 m each," states the audit report.
It has also been recommended that the width of the service road (which is of 5.5 m width to 7.5 m along with the provision of 1.5 m paved shoulder on either side) be enhanced.