fencing or barrier to withstand vehicles

Hi, I'm looking for a barrier to keep vehicles off my property. We're somewhat rural .  I don't like the idea of rocks because it could hurt the drivers.  I'm not talking about people parking on my property.  We have a corner property, speed limit is 55 on front street, and 45 on side street, which has stop signs.  Lots of crashes at this corner.  Three in five weeks, more than usual. One drove over my mailbox, the other totally flattened a 14 foot high Green Giant, and damaged the one behind it.

So far I'm thinking of buying IBC totes, adding water, putting a wooden stockade fence up to hide them, they aren't pretty.  A first responder said a vehicle will move them, so it sounds safer than big rocks. Two accidents involved high school aged drivers, one at fault, the other one not at fault.  My aim isn't to hurt anyone, but protect ourselves and our trees, which we planted for privacy.  I've read many ingenious ideas on this forum, so hope to hear more. TIA

It sounds like you have a tough location.  Your solutions sound reasonable. Regarding the IBC totes, how often do you think you might have to replace them? …and at what cost? While I would not seek to injure anyone, I would be less concerned about them injuring themselves once they drove their vehicle onto my property.  In any case, do check your local liability laws.

Hi John, thanks for your reply.   I know what you mean about not worrying too much about others once they're on our property.  Problem is that innocent people are hit, and end up there. The innocent people could be us, or our friends, as well as any strangers. BTW, I've called the highway dept twice, they've reviewed it, and won't put up flashing lights, or even a guardrail, just saying.

I got lucky finding IBC totes for $20 each, while new ones are $400 at Tractor Supply.  There's a landscaping place that buys food grade dye for their mulch, and then gets rid of the totes for $20.

I don't know how often they'd have to be replaced.  The next step could be to make raised beds from cinder blocks, to put between the ring of trees on our perimeter, the totes, and our house.   This would just be close to the corner of the lot, not around the whole two acres.

Do you experience freezing temperatures where you live? One of my concerns with the IBC totes is the potential for the freeze/thaw cycle to ruin the bladder after a while.

Something to consider is that a gallon of water equates roughly to eight pounds. An IBC tote can hold around 275 gallons depending on the size. A vehicle smacking into one of them might give you a similar result to barrier rocks but I'm an advocate for boulder landscaping as passive protection so know I come from a biased opinion.

I wonder how durable the cages might be to fill with rocks to make a makeshift gabion basket?

Hi Timothy, thanks for the ideas.   True, the freeze thaw cycle could damage the bladder.   For four years we have had three IBC totes, full of water all year, to water the garden during the summer draught.  So far, so good.  We are in zone 6a.

Your idea of a rock filled cage probably would work the best, and as a last resort I would do that.   One advantage if that they are about 4 feet high.  The first responder thought that if the tote had water in it, there would still be some give to it.  So far our garden totes haven't frozen solid, which I agree, would be like a rock wall.
Do you think the idea of a cinder block raised bed would work?
I wonder how high it would have to be.

Hi Jan, that is a difficult problem to have. Ideally to protect the vehicle occupant as much as possible you want a barrier that has ability to absorb the energy of the vehicle. The good news is that for decades vehicles have been designed to hit solid barriers at up to 30mph without too much injury.
Thoughts:
The obvious one, which does have some downsides is earth filled vehicle tyres. They should be freely available, you could potentially plant them with creeping and flowering plants to disguise them. Some people paint them different colours, although I suspect that the paint would look worse once it starts coming off. Obvious downside is potential toxic gick issues....However you could easily build a stack 3 - 4 tall enough for a utility vehicle bumper to hit square on. It would knock as many tyres out as the speed determined, but I think it could be very effective.


[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_wall]wikimedia/url]


image from tyre and rubber recycling

I was trying to think of more natural barriers. The down side of something like successive wooden fences is that it is pretty difficult to design a one size fits all system and the properties of the wood will change with moisture and age - becoming more brittle and less effective over time. I'm wondering though  if something like a living bamboo or willow fence may be an option? The willow in particular would take some time to establish, but you could plant say three or four rows, coppice one a year for fuel or craft use, which would leave you the others to act as crash absorbers, keeping them young and flexible. Other plants might be suitable for your area - a tough, quick growing cane would be best, one that would bend and splinter rather than snap.


image from bosvern community farm

This is not the forum for a bunch of complex legal argument, but I would hesitate to use a barrier  that obviously had a lot of work or thought put into it.

People typically use large rocks or boulders for this.

I understand that you are trying to reduce injury. That's commendable. The path to liability is often paved with commendable good intentions.

Maybe instead of a custom solution, drive around, and use whatever solution is common in your jurisdiction. Common practice is always a defendable position.

If you plant a living wall behind the boulders, maybe you can remove the boulders in a few years.

Best of luck!

When I was a kid, the adults around me would refer to a line of (usually tulip poplar) trees grown up along the side of the road as a "drunk fence" because once the trees were big enough that's what they blocked. Put your rocks/tires or other short term solution up, and right behind them plant some fast growing trees.

As Nancy Reading said above, the best approach is something that will absorb energy. Local to me there's a complicated round-about which is an accident magnet. Infrastructure they don't want damaged is protected by a series of oversized "garbage can" like bins partially filled with sand and with a lid on. The force of the car can displace and move the sand and if high enough, displace the whole bins, before the car hits the cement abutment.

So filling the IBC's with sand instead of water might be better (hopefully some local engineer will know?) Or consider getting used plastic barrels instead and pouring sand into them?

I also recognize that you don't get to choose who actually gets hurt. However, if the intersection is an accident waiting to happen, maybe getting them to fix that would be even more effective?
Options:
1. Rumble strips on the road - reminds people of the danger
2. Warning sign that it's a dangerous intersection - maybe even on your own land and have it adjustable - "It has been 3 weeks since the last accident at this corner" sort of thing.
3. Speed humps - these can be designed so that if the driver is going the speed limit, the average car can drive over them without any difficulty, but if they're speeding, the hump will be uncomfortable.
4. Make sure there isn't anything blocking the view like branches.

Hi Jan,

Having given this a little thought, have you checked with your home insurance?   Much depends upon the company, but some will inspect the site and come up with ideas for risk mitigation.   I have used them from time to time with no negative impact on my insurance.    

Thank you all for such excellent solutions.  It gives me a lot to think about.  Since I didn't post pictures, it was a challenge to find a solution. We have planted at least 25 green giant arborvitaes as a barrier, but they take time to grow. At 14 feet tall, I thought they'd be stronger.  So the temporary solutions that were mentioned are all worth considering.  I did contact the state highway dept, twice, and my insurance company, to no avail.  The idea of putting sand in the totes is good since we live in zone 6.  Also the tires with flowers might work.  I could make them the same height as a guard rail.

Is it possible that the trees are obscuring views around the corner, and actually contributing to an increase of accidents happening in the first place?

Perhaps a lower series of shrubs would achieve a similar effect?  

Edits to add:  
Alternatively, if excessive speed is a factor, perhaps some small (blue) reflective markers could help.  At night the blue reflectors may cause drivers to think "police ahead, what's my speed?" and adjust accordingly.

One other thought.  If the arborvitae plants are really effective as a privacy  barrier, it may instill some curiosity and rubber necking as drivers attempt to see what's behind the plants.

Hi George,  I did check with the zoning dept. They said the law says everything, ie: trees, fences, etc must be 30 ft back from the center of the road, well, all roads, and the intersection.
I knew we complied, but I measured once again, and all is well. The highway dept said that they have intersection warning signs in four places before the intersection, and have signs that say "cross traffic does not stop" on the double stop signs, (stop signs on the left and right side of the road), and they checked out our property on google maps to see the position of everything.  Their conclusion is that drivers have to pay attention.  While this is true, it doesn't help us at all. But thank you for your idea, because it could be one of those overlooked things, since trees continue to grow.

Hi George,  we're on a truck route, and lots of people have rows of arborvitae in our area. We're rural. We're not in a neighborhood.  Since we have the same folk traveling up and down the road, same locals, too, I doubt if they are interested in what's behind the trees.  Our place isn't especially pretty or special.  I have talked to some of the people in accidents.  Some run the stop sign. Some think it's a four way stop, even though the sign says it's not.  The last one said she saw the stop sign but skidded.  Lots just run the stop sign from what the neighbors say. That's what one of the highway dept studies was about. Why does this happen?  They said it was a variety of things.
I will look into your idea of the blue reflectors. That's interesting.
Thanks

Hi Jan,

Great point!   It is amazing the number of people who will run stop signs and break other laws based upon rumor. I once has an employee try to to explain to me that it was OK  to run a stop sign in a rural area because that was the rule for country driving.  She dug in so hard, it was clear she was not going to change her driving habits in company vehicles.   I ended up discharging her when I had planned to give her a verbal warning. She filed for unemployment and was turned down based upon what she wrote in her claim application.

I know I am late to the game, but you could cut the IBC totes in half and make them into wicking beds.  Turn them into useful raised bed gardens for either flowers or vegetables.  To make them less painful to look at, you could either paint the tubs a pretty color, or wrap them in wood planking.  I did this just for the raised beds, but if you're thinking of putting IBC totes up anyway, cutting them in half and turning them into garden beds seems like it could both be productive and function as a vehicle block.  Depending on how much space you need to cover, this could be a very productive use.

Just for ideas, here is one way to do it...

https://www.instructables.com/Veggie-Planters-From-an-IBC-Tote-and-Old-Fence/

Making grow beds is a good idea. Since they'd be amongst the trees, I could try growing lettuce and squash. Once I had volunteer squash vine up a blue spruce. Thanks for the idea.

Blue reflectors are normally used to indicate the location of water access points.
Would an earth wall help?

  I know of a local accident corner, on my old work comute.  They put up  a cement block wall. My thought was that was going to be painful and expensive next time someone runs off the road there.  About 3 months later I drive by and the wall is smashed in. Turns out they had dry stacked it.  Blocks went everywhere and i am sure many where damaged but that wall was nowhere near the killer stop it could have been.  Tom

CalTrans, the highway dept. of Calif. uses densely planted oleander on Hwy. 99 in the median as a dividing barricade. Pretty much carproof.
I would also point out water is used in those large yellow barrels. Makes sense. Hit a barrel of sand at 50mph or barrel of water. They use both, water more forgiving, but needs more volume.

Tommy Bolin wrote:CalTrans, the highway dept. of Calif. uses densely planted oleander on Hwy. 99 in the median as a dividing barricade. Pretty much carproof.

I wonder if there's a "springy" shrub or tree that will act like a shock absorber? Many of our highway barricades are a row of curved concrete panels. If a vehicle side-swipes one, they don't usually shift. But if the car's angle is great enough, they do shift which has to absorb at least some of the energy involved.

It's a balance - you don't want the vehicle bouncing back into traffic out of control creating greater risk, but you do want the energy involved dissipated in some safe way. It seems there are pros and cons to every option, but trees and shrubs can be stacking functions as they break up the wind, sound, and some are good at absorbing pollutants.

And wrote:

I would also point out water is used in those large yellow barrels. Makes sense. Hit a barrel of sand at 50mph or barrel of water. They use both, water more forgiving, but needs more volume.

In some ecosystems, water is a great option. Water with salt added, will freeze at a lower temperature, extending that option to more ecosystems. There are some places where the temperatures are such that it may not be a viable choice.

I remember a car  testing the oleander, and also some spots where the obvious had happened, when I was building post offices central Calif., very early 90's. Vehicles trying to get through that oleander median had no luck.
Oleander is very drought tolerant, full sun/heat tolerant, very springy, very tough.

Water will accept sodium chloride salt up to saturation 11+ lbs/gallon gross weight, salt/water.
The freeze temp continues to go down, and then near saturation flips back, rapidly, until it freezes even just above 32F. There exists an extender, allows oversaturation for weight.
What I recall, drilling in Pennsylvania.