Penza, 9 June 2015. PenzaNews. The Center of Special-Purpose Engineering Structures under the Research and Design Institute of Radioelectronic Engineering (JSC “CSPES NIKIRET”), the leading enterprise of the Penza region equipment production cluster, has crash-tested an anti-collision boom gate on Tuesday, June 9.
According to original plans, the boom gate was to be rammed by a vehicle of 10 tons at the speed of 40 kmph, and the sensors installed on it would determine the strengths and the weaknesses of the construction.
However, the cable that was used to accelerate the ramming vehicle did not withstand the load and broke during the pulling phase, because of which the ramming speed was only about 15kmph.
“We also checked the foundation that held the anti-ramming device. Not a single anchor bolt budged,” Vladislav Makarov, first assistant director of “CSPES NIKIRET,” commented on the situation, and added that the boom gate itself bent but withstood the weaker collision.
After the cleanup, the staff repeated the test.
As a result of the second test, the boom gate sustained great damages, but did stop the vehicle by causing it to upturn.
Similar boom gates are currently used to protect the railways of Moscow–St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg–Vyborg–Buslovskaya, and Moscow–Nizhny Novgorod high-speed train routes, but the R&D never stops the work to improve the device, the communications bureau officer at “CSPES NIKIRET” Sergei Dolzhenkov told PenzaNews agency.
“The modifications of the tested anti-collision boom gates were developed within the specifications provided by ‘Russian Railroads.’ In particular, the width of the gate is chosen to block two car lanes at once in order to avoid any unintended car-to-train collisions,” the speaker explained.
The company plans to next test the boom gate against a 6.8 ton vehicle moving at 80 kmph.
