[narayans80]

Drove back home this afternoon. In the Bangalore-Walajah section, huge number of barricades have popped up. Whatever speed breakers KA is shedding, TN is compensating them with barricades.

- There's one on the right lane at Hosur Sipcot (before Adhiyamaan College).
- Spotted at least 3 on Krishnagiri bypass on the NH46 side.
- So many around Vellore, Arcot.
- Don't remember seeing any in the 4-lane section beyond Walajah. All of them are on the 6-lane section.

Took the straight route i.e Kanchipuram Bypass-Sriperumbudur Bypass-Poonamalee Bypass-Kattupakkam-Porur-Mount Road.

- Walajah to first Kanchipuram turnoff (at 76 km) is fully resurfaced. There is just a 1/4 km stretch near Baluchetti near a barricade that looked like old tarmac. But that you'd be at slow speeds due to the barricade.
- Next noticeable patchy surface is around 55-58 km milestone. Here you would see some odd pothole and the first old patch. This continues till Nemili toll.
- Beyond Nemili toll too there is good progress, at least half the stretch is resurfaced.
- The horrible patch at Poonamalee bypass that had a case against NHAI is smooth surface now.

A combination of good resurfacing and relatively less traffic on a Sunday ensured I covered 76 km milestone to home in 1:25 hrs.

Fastag updates will be posted in relevant thread.

Originally Posted by aravind.anand

Took the State highway route for the Christmas weekend

Both routes are NH. Chittoor was NH4 and Vellore was NH46.

[iamnarayang]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Drove back home this afternoon. In the Bangalore-Walajah section, huge number of barricades have popped up. Whatever speed breakers KA is shedding, TN is compensating them with barricades.

.

This seems to be the new trend on the highways in Tamil Nadu. The police don't realize it is extremely dangerous to erect these things on the highway or in any high speed traffic roads. Most of the times it suddenly pops up in front of you, and may cause huge accident. Drove to Yercaud during Christams holidays. Encountered many of these on the Bangalore Salem route. Very annoying.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by iamnarayang

This seems to be the new trend on the highways in Tamil Nadu. The police don't realize it is extremely dangerous to erect these things on the highway or in any high speed traffic roads. Most of the times it suddenly pops up in front of you, and may cause huge accident. Drove to Yercaud during Christams holidays. Encountered many of these on the Bangalore Salem route. Very annoying.

Look at the bright side they are all just before road crossings in towns that pass through the route. You would have to slow down for those anyway to avoid banging into people trying to get to the other side of the road, but just how many people do that?

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by hserus

Look at the bright side they are all just before road crossings in towns that pass through the route. You would have to slow down for those anyway to avoid banging into people trying to get to the other side of the road, but just how many people do that?

Going by this logic, I would prefer the speed breakers to these barricades. The former don't cause vehicles to abruptly change lanes or worse, if taken at not so slow speeds result in another vehicle getting damaged because of flying metal.

IMHO, these barricades are unscientific and extremely dangerous. Lost count of the number of places where they've got displaced probably by vehicles hitting them or by people moving them around as per their convenience.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by hserus

Look at the bright side they are all just before road crossings in towns that pass through the route. You would have to slow down for those anyway to avoid banging into people trying to get to the other side of the road, but just how many people do that?

There is no bright side here and people don't exactly cross where the barricades are, it all happens as they please.

Here are my observations based on the multiple trips done in the last 3 months:

- Quite a few are erected by restaurants and local industries. One by Pallikonda Aryas on a long straight, one on a uphill stretch near Shoolagiri I spotted on my onward, another at Hosur Sipcot on my return are all downright illegal and don't serve any earthly purpose.

- Among the other dozen and half, very few have warning signs ahead.

- Each one has its own random entry point without any pattern, if you are lucky the vehicle ahead would spot or you'll spot the entry point with 100 meters or so to spare.

- There are few on the apex of a blind turns.

- If you are in the middle of an overtaking maeouver and spot one, god save you.

- Barricades knocked off lie around haywire, you need to have your eyes peeled to spot one.

Whats working in KA NH4 and Nasik-Pune highway are rumbler strips, which requires you to slow but not fly off like the monster speed breaker at Kyathasandra nor hood damaging barricades we have in TN highways.

Heck these rumbler strips are very much there the highway under discussion, on the two flyovers near Ambur where there is a sharp turn in the middle of the gradient.

[binand]

Originally Posted by narayans80

There is no bright side here and people don't exactly cross where the barricades are, it all happens as they please. [snip]Whats working in KA NH4 and Nasik-Pune highway are rumbler strips

I hate the barricades and doubly so speed breakers. What I liked is the system they have on NH 4 between Kolhapur and Pune - progressively increasing number of rumblers as you near the gaps in median/busy villages. No need for sudden braking or swerving. No damage to the vehicle (I hope!).

[hserus]

Originally Posted by binand

I hate the barricades and doubly so speed breakers. What I liked is the system they have on NH 4 between Kolhapur and Pune - progressively increasing number of rumblers as you near the gaps in median/busy villages. No need for sudden braking or swerving. No damage to the vehicle (I hope!).

If there are barricades erected by local restaurants on long straights, with no crossing ahead, possibly with local police connivance, a NHAI grievance can be filed so that the barricade is removed.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by hserus

If there are barricades erected by local restaurants on long straights, with no crossing ahead, possibly with local police connivance, a NHAI grievance can be filed so that the barricade is removed.

I believe it's usually a combination of both - there is a junction ahead, so these barricades are placed there and the space on them serve as advertisement space for local businesses (near kancheepuram it is the silk showrooms, elsewhere it is hotels or even the educational institutions near Salem). It is a nexus no doubt , something that benefits both parties and can possibly be justified by the cops saying it's an accident spot before a junction.

[NPV]

Update from recent Bangalore-Kanchipuram-Bangalore Trip:
The moment you enter TN side, the infamous, irritating and dangerous police speed control barricades crop up and can take you by surprise if not alert, Be alert and keep your eyes peeled to spot these.

The first such barricade was in Hosur near the RTO checkpost and the next is also nearby (HUDCO police station). After Krishnagiri toll, soon after you turn off towards Chennai, the barricades come up again at several places, be very alert.
Some come up immediately after a right handed curve or uphill section quite suddenly, so watch out.
Interestingly:
1. On some barricades, the Advertisements for local businesses (painted on these barricades) have been struck off hurriedly with paint, while at one place they had only the
name of the local police station. At another place near Vellore, they had lots of Do's and Don'ts type of gyan for highway driving.

2. The pattern of placement of these barricades wasn't consistent - some had 2 sets parallel to each other few feet apart, essentially cutting off one lane whereas others had 2 sets of parallel barricades placed in such a way on 2 lanes that one has to snake in between them. Needless to say, trucks struggled at these places and caused mini traffic jams since other vehicles couldn't pass.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by NPV

The moment you enter TN side, the infamous, irritating and dangerous police speed control barricades crop up and can take you by surprise if not alert, Be alert and keep your eyes peeled to spot these.

Welcome to the barricade complaining club Looks like except for one more added at Hosur, its pretty much the same from 2 weeks back.

What were your timings? Any improvement in conditions in Kanchipuram-Vellore direction?

[mpksuhas]

^^ Regarding barricades, I felt it was easier to drive in night. Since all of them (atleast for time being ) has reflective stickers. Thanks to this, its possible to notice this from a distance in headlight.

During day time or when traffic is high, you may not notice the same till vehicle ahead of you does a sudden lane change.

I felt the worst one was just before Hosur town while coming from Krishnagiri town. Last month while driving down on a weekend, there was a traffic jam of around half KM just to cross this barricade.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Welcome to the barricade complaining club Looks like except for one more added at Hosur, its pretty much the same from 2 weeks back.

What were your timings? Any improvement in conditions in Kanchipuram-Vellore direction?

Not new to the barricade complaining club, been posting about it for more than a year now after each trip on various routes

With a 5am start, was at Sai Sangeet, Chengulikuppam (Vaniyambadi) around 7:30am.
Resumed at 8:15 and was at Kailasanathar temple around 10am.

Finished our work at Kanchi, started around 3:15pm after lunch and reached silk board junction by 7:45pm with a 10 minute break for coffee at Vaniyambadi (Sai Akshayam, place very much inspired by Sai Sangeet).

Roads were fine, some small circles of missing top layer after Kanchipuram bypass in the Bangalore direction, nothing alarming. Also some sections had newish tarmac and no lane markings yet, can't remember exactly where.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

I felt it was easier to drive in night. Since all of them (atleast for time being ) has reflective stickers. Thanks to this, its possible to notice this from a distance in headlight.

Were you able to spot the entry points too at night? Since they have in such a haphazard way. Unless there was a vehicle ahead, it was not easy to spot till you are close, so in a way traffic helped in that part.

[BackInTheFold]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Were you able to spot the entry points too at night? Since they have in such a haphazard way. Unless there was a vehicle ahead, it was not easy to spot till you are close, so in a way traffic helped in that part.

During a recent trip, I noticed that a few barricades had toppled over and were lying at various angles to the road. I drove during the day and it was mostly ok. I also noticed small signboards warning of speed breakers and barricades 500m ahead. However, many barricades came about without any such wanting.

If you have a choice, it might just be better to drive when visibility is good

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Were you able to spot the entry points too at night? Since they have in such a haphazard way. Unless there was a vehicle ahead, it was not easy to spot till you are close, so in a way traffic helped in that part.

Yes. My drive was somewhere around Oct I guess, not sure of the condition now. However, the barricades were having graffiti type of reflective stickers. Especially the ones around Vellore.

I remember it specifically since it was raining in between and traffic was sparse, still compared to the return in day time it was easier to spot barricades in night.