North Idaho innovation will expedite
concrete-barrier replacement

Concrete barriers are often replaced after being damaged by drivers or natural disasters, as was the case after the landslide on Idaho Highway 5 near Plummer in March 2017. In the midst of the aftermath, the local ITD operations crew needed to open the road and replace the concrete rail quickly.

However, what looks like one long line of guardrail to the public is really several concrete sections connected by steel loops that are then intersected by a pin. Removing the pin is key to separate the chunks, but extraction usually requires, as Transportation Technician Gareth Abell puts it, “three guys and a prayer.”

After attempting to pull the pin out with grapples, levers and shovels, Abell thought to himself, “There’s got to be a better way to do this.”

Abell and his fellow workers successfully installed new concrete barriers, but over the winter he began researching more effective ways to unhook the pin. His online searching failed to reveal more efficient methods, but his toils in the shop produced his latest innovation: portable rail tongs.

See the tongs in action.

Abell spent 10 hours reusing an old face plate from a plow to make the tongs, which can be used in conjunction with a loader or backhoe to reach and grasp the pesky pin more easily than other tools.

“The tongs cut down on the manpower needed for the job, they are safer, and with them it only takes a third of the time to replace concrete barriers,” Abell said.

Right now the Santa maintenance shed has the only pair of tongs, but as he has been warned by others, “Don’t be surprised if that pair goes missing.”

Published 06-29-18