Golden Gate Bridge moveable median barrier installation: closeup and narrated (January 10, 2015) 

The comment I was looking for! Thanks Martin Nation!

you should visit California, we love people from all countries

MrPLC999 my thoughts exactly.

MrPLC999 Yup, I was thinking the same. You can still work twice as fast as starting from only one end but you don't have to worry about lining anything up.

+MrPLC999 The point of the dividers is they are movable to allow more lanes for rush hour. They have those expansion joints every 20 sections or so because if they did not they would not be able to move the divider to the adjoining lane within the length of the buss size equipment used to move the dividers. Google zipper lane divider

+Jeff Sloop These are State workers. They don't know what fast means. One of many reasons why California is going broke.

Chris Sanders Thanks. I'm sure the professionals can do things I can't. I try to make my videos entertaining, sometimes with a "twist" if possible. My advantage over the professionals is that I can throw away the ones that don't work out and nobody ever sees those. Although... next time you have an interesting project in SF, maybe we can work out some sort of access ;) No charge on either side! ;) Thanks for the correction -- unfortunately with RU-vid there's no way to replace or update a video. I can add some annotations with corrections, although annotations don't work in all environments and people turn them off too. I did actually visit your site for my other video about the Road Zipper -- hope I got that one mostly correct. Thanks for the comment, I do appreciate it.

Chris Sanders It is a nice solution, these barrier system. But i have a question. In the USA is the imperial system in use, so why are the parts 1 Meter long and not 1 Yard?

What really matters is they get the job done

Bus Driver Bob You are quite correct! In today's world, where every event has a million people recording from every angle, it is inevitable that they will each be in each others' video. I did indeed spot myself in your video, but only because I know what I look like -- you can only see me from behind and for a couple of frames and you can't see my camera, so only I know it is me! This is actually not the first time something like this has happened. I often record events in SF, and there are others who do the same and on occasion I have been able to spot myself in the background of one of their videos.I actually thought about taking a GG Transit bus that day, but never got around to it. I did take a Muni 28, but not GG Transit. Occasionally I do drive-lapses and train-lapses, and I've thought about doing bus-lapses -- who knows, maybe we could collaborate on a bus-lapse someday...

+Bus Driver Bob: Haha! Same thing happened with a segment I edited of a rally/counterprotest at Portsmouth Square. A second cameraman who was there posted his footage on RU-vid and I found my cameraman captured in the second cameraman's footage. So I went back through my cameraman's footage and found the second cameraman captured in our clips.

Philipp no he wasn’t

Disagree

Warren Fowlie Thanks, Warren, I appreciate the comment.

+peggyt1243 this barrier is of metal not concrete.... soo it is a Movable Steel safety barrier ....and i think it will be more durable ..... if it is a copy I don´t know. and i dont know if you were angry .... XD

+ma va My issue is the USA claiming they are first. They are not the first to have a zipper lane.

ok . I understand you.

Who claimed the Golden Gate movable median barrier was the first one? I heard no such claim in this video. This video starts out saying that people having been talking about putting a movable median barrier on the Golden Gate for many years and that the video is documenting the first time the Golden Gate has had such a barrier. The wording implies movable median barriers have existed elsewhere before.

+firstname lastname Yes switch it to 4 lanes in and 2 lanes out morning rush hour and 4 lanes out and 2 lanes in during evening rush hour. Here in NYC to NJ they use the 4th lane for buses, but they don't have a fancy barrier system. Just the cones and pegs, kind of scary for guys to move them during full traffic.

Military bases and D.C.use the closing of lanes in rush hours. Works very well.

no, nobody ever thought to calculate that, just you. You're a genius

They would need two adjustable links for both ends.

@@redwarf8118 It is open at the ends: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CeX1Fl_1cVE.html . Besides, who would you fix it? Barrier is shifted one lane, so ends are moving.

That’s true

+lifesavrdwd Thanks for the comment I appreciate it! There are a couple of us who have speculated about the weight elsewhere in the comments for this video.

+lifesavrdwd nah. the maximum each set of 2 could possibly weigh is only 3200lbs, based on the jig's warning marker.

I thought the same thing!!

+ted lovestrand The barrier machines are using tier III diesels. They should have been using the newer, much cleaner tier IV

Paul Phelps Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.

+JustWasted3HoursHere Yes the people of New Zealand came up with the moveable barrier and road zipper and did so 25 years ago (1990).

+Tsialong Thow This way may not be the best, but it is the cheapest. Also, if unions are involved, this is how it HAS to be done. Unions hate efficiency.

Najja Foluke Thanks. You can now cross more safely!

Party Of The Third Part Right on time!

Jordan Saylor It was a little scary because the lanes are narrower than standard, there are no shoulders at all, the markings of the lanes do not distinguish in any way the directions (there are only white dots that are the same in every lane), there are no lights above the lanes as many places have to show the direction of travel, and the lane configurations change at different times of the day. So other than the little widely-spaced plastic pylons, that are difficult to see, especially at night or when there is thick fog (which is very common on the bridge), there were no visual clues as to which lanes were for which direction, and the configuration is different at different times. What was most scary was relying on all other drivers, including people from out of town and "impaired" drivers, to handle this situation correctly. Also, those narrow roads you're talking about are typically one lane in each direction. On the bridge, there are 6 lanes. So when you're in that left lane, if someone in the 2 or 3 lanes to the right of you makes a mistake (because they're a tourist gawking at the bridge) or has a mechanical problem (such as a semi blowing a tire), and swerves into you, there's nowhere for you to go, you're going into the opposing traffic because it is only 12 inches away and there was no barrier. And the bridge is very busy, so you're not going to find an empty spot, you will have a head-on collision. This is why the leftmost lanes on the GG bridge were widely known in the Bay Area by the nickname the "suicide lanes".

Where is there a 2-lane highway with a speed limit of 75MPH? In the United States, the highest, non-interstate highway speed limit is 70MPH, in Ohio, only for 4-lane divided highways.

There would likely be "heave ho" linking the barrier up to the permanent barriers at both ends then.

dw75002 Various news reports at the time made this claim. The claim was that it had never been completely closed for construction, only for various celebrations. I can't vouch for the accuracy of those reports, as the bridge has been around longer than I have ;)

Party Of The Third Part I was there when the traveler was moved from one side to the other during the restringing operation. Yes the bridge was completely closed in the middle of the night.

gatekeeper ' Thanks for letting me know! I'd fix the video if I could, but RU-vid doesn't allow in-place replacement. I'll see if I can put something in the annotations (for those that can see annotations).

+Mat Tuk Here is a newspaper article about the project, in which it is stated: "The barrier will be made of more than 800 blocks that weigh 1,500 pounds each. " www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_27273680/new-zipper-trucks-golden-gate-bridge-will-move

The barriers are made of steel, and I think are filled with concrete after installation by the hose connected to that thing with wheels being slid across the top of the barrier.

+Peter Smyth The barriers are already filled in with concrete when they are installed. The wheeled thing that goes across the top aligns the segments properly and then drives the connecting pin between segments in the rest of the way (the guy with the hammer only starts the pin going, hammering it only part way in). The segments are heavy, but have a relatively smooth bottom and three strong men can slide them a little bit at a time across the relatively smooth pavement. But it takes a lot of effort and they don't do that often.

+Party Of The Third Part I was wondering what that does, and how the pins got fully inserted.

+Mat Tuk The thing they are moving is a VLB (variable length barrier). This is hollow steel. They place these every so often to accommodate the expansion and contraction of the barrier as it changes positions. As you can imagine, the barrier changes length as it goes through the machine. Anyways, it's not 1500 lb, as you guessed. Maybe around 500 or so.

BackyardWoodworks Crafts & More Good question! I read a news report that said there are 3,517 segments. Each segment is 1 meter long, but I don't know if that includes any gap between segments. The bridge is 2,737 meters long, so obviously they go beyond just the bridge itself and include some of the approaches on each end.

I'm an engineer and I didn't even consider that lol. Good catch

You mean the fork lift driver & the hammer man? All the rest were supervisors & office junkies out to get on camera.

+Tsialong Thow USA is following New Zealand and is 25 years late.

+kingmike40 -- ITS GOOD JOB YOURS AS ALREADY YOU MAKE MATHS BEFORE I DO IT, THANKS BUDDY, SO IT COMES 2,865 M.TONS WOWWW, WHAT A BIG DEAL OF WEIGHING CAPACITY OF THE GG BRIDGE.

+kingmike40 The company that built this system, Barrier Systems, was purchased by Lindsay. Barrier Systems was formed roughly 20-25 years ago for the primary purpose of putting this system on this bridge. It's taken that long to get all the approvals and funding. In that time, though, dozens and dozens of these systems have been deployed throughout the world. You can be sure that the bridge engineers had hundreds of hours of discussions of the extra weight. Take into account, though that cars are getting much lighter. We have priuses and Leafs now, not Oldsmobiles and Buicks.

Twice a day using a "zipper" vehicle

Thanks

About $23 million dollars

too many people bring too many problems

Vincent de Guard too many bosses too many loses

+Dondrey Taylor I think this is for the whole system including the "road zipper" - This machine thal allows to shift these blocks by one lane to the left or right.

Ah true. I didn't think about the cost of the road zipper being included + construction costs + planning costs. They could probably even estimate lost tolls due to closures. I guess $30 million would make sense.

+Dondrey Taylor I think each zipper truck costs $1.4 million.

+Dondrey Taylor $30 million sounds reasonable, considering..... The new east span of the bay bridge originally was projected to cost $800 million, then just over $1 billion. It ended up costing $6.4 billion. And, it is cracking and at risk of failing. Projects like this cost fortunes to please unions and political supporters. They just throw the bill at taxpayers who have no choice but to pay high tolls. Only San Francisco and Oakland politicians can spend other peoples money like is flows in with the tide. Los Angeles has their subway. Another taxpayer funded boondoggle. Minimal tolls lost and minimal construction costs. Just the Road Zipper machines and the blocks at about $5000 per foot.

Mark G Wow, thanks for the break down. I had no idea they spent this much on these types of projects.

Kitty Cat No...No they won’t! These are Designed and Rated as Non-Gated QMB Barriers. Which means, Non-Gated= No Pass Thru. A fully loaded semi truck going 50-55 MPH hitting the pinned *Quick *Moveable *Barriers at a ~30-50 degree angle WILL NOT (should not) Break or Go Through/Over the Wall and into oncoming traffic. They have been Crash Tested and Rated.