EPS shows new anti-terrorist barrier

Terrorists using vehicles to drive into crowds of pedestrians has become an all-too-common phenomenon in recent years. Preventing them from carrying out such attacks is the aim of a new barrier system from EPS. The Italian company’s Hostile Vehicle Mitigation (HVM) system consists of a series of hexagonal bases, each holding a large vertical pillar. The system is made of steel throughout, with the individual bases able to be connected with steel pins to create a customised barrier.
March 21, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
Stopping the threat: Luca Giubilato
Terrorists using vehicles to drive into crowds of pedestrians has become an all-too-common phenomenon in recent years. Preventing them from carrying out such attacks is the aim of a new barrier system from 8718 EPS.


The Italian company’s Hostile Vehicle Mitigation (HVM) system consists of a series of hexagonal bases, each holding a large vertical pillar. The system is made of steel throughout, with the individual bases able to be connected with steel pins to create a customised barrier.

The company says that the shape of the HVM was inspired by the Giant’s Causeway, a geological phenomenon on the coast of Northern Ireland, which consists of a series of interlocking basalt columns.

The company has chosen Intertraffic for the first showing of the new system. Engineer Luca Giubilato from EPS’s research and development team said that tests had shown the system capable of withstanding the impact of a 3.5-tonne truck being driven at it at 48km/h.

The basic weight of each unit is 281kg, but the strength and rigidity of the system can be further increased by slotting a solid steel weight inside each of the vertical pillars. That boosts the weight to 700kg.

The system is designed so that if an attacker’s vehicle rides up over the first column, it will slump on top of the pillars, rather than clearing them.

The individual modules are installed and removed using a hydraulic crane.

EPS has taken out a patent on the system, which has already aroused interest from potential customers in Switzerland and Norway, said Giubilato.

Stand 6.403

%$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external www.eps.net false http://www.eps.net/ false false%>

For more information on companies in this article

EPS

Related Content

  • Q-Free reinforces ITS capabilities, expertise at World Congress
    September 18, 2012
    Q-Free intends to use its appearance at the ITS World Congress to reflect a broader and more accurate reality of the company’s strength and capabilities. That’s not going to be difficult, if one considers the technological and geographical diversity of the company’s success since the beginning of this year alone. In March, Q-Free was awarded the contract for delivery of the congestion charging infrastructure for the Swedish city of Gothenburg which includes road side equipment, infrastructure and service an
    Read More
  • Q-Free reinforces ITS capabilities, expertise at World Congress
    September 18, 2012
    Q-Free intends to use its appearance at the ITS World Congress to reflect a broader and more accurate reality of the company’s strength and capabilities. That’s not going to be difficult, if one considers the technological and geographical diversity of the company’s success since the beginning of this year alone.
    Read More
  • ITS Ireland explains Design Manual changes
    March 19, 2014
    ITS Ireland will begin its 2014 seminar program with an examination of the changes being made to the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) as part of a major revision being carried out by the National Roads Authority. The revision will be in three-stages (Infrastructure, Devices, and Procedures) first of which has been published and the second is currently in production. ITS Ireland said the focus of the presentation in its seminar will be on the documents issued by the NRA and the package that
    Read More
  • Test
    August 10, 2016
    %$Linker: 2 Internal <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 4 9782 0 oLinkInternal <span class="oLinkInternal"><span class="oLinkInternal">RSS</span></span> Events (Diary)
    Read More

Highlighted Content