Comments on: Perimeter Security Barrier Options

By: Herb

Herb — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 00:04:52 +0000

About five years ago, my 34 year old son was his first day of a new job of driving a semi truck from Ohio to Nebraska, He was accompanied by a training driver. (it was his first run). and that was common procedure. About two and one half miles from his destination in Omaha Nebraska, A gravel truck coming from the opposite direction on the Interstate highway, in a construction zone, (55 MPH Speed limit) lost control, smashed through twelve of these concrete barriers, crossed the muddy median strip, then crashed into the truck my son was in. The training driver was behind the wheel and my son was in the sleeper sleeping. The crash resulted in a fire on the truck my son was in. The training driver got out of the truck but was seriously burned, my son was trapped in the sleeper and was burned alive. The Nebraske State Police Saggent who investigated the accident stated to me "The gravel truck was not speeding"

SO MUCH FOR CONCRETE BARRIERS

By: The Lonewacko Blog

The Lonewacko Blog — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 22:57:01 +0000

I don't think it would take even 180 seconds. Just carry planks on the top of the, for instance, Hummer. Drive it up to the barrier, drop the planks, back up, drive over the wall. What they could use is a series of large, tall planters arranged in a maze shape without enough space between any of them to drive a truck through. But, even that could be breached by several people on motorcycles. Between them they couldn't carry a ton, but they might carry enough to do damage.

By: RA

RA — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 20:50:05 +0000

If I wanted to get a truck bomb over that puny little wall, it would take about 180 seconds to put in place a prefab ramp that would allow a truck to jump this little obstacle. It could be done by a different truck and no one would think anything about it. Safe is better than pretty.

By: John Burgess

John Burgess — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 19:24:40 +0000

Establishing set-backs from roadways and streets has been the cause of many, many new building projects for US embassies and other official buildings abroad.

One attempt at providing better security was been the "Inman embassy," which essentially turns the building into a bunker. Small windows, thick walls outside the building, very thick walls in the building. But even six feet of concrete can be breached if you use a powerful enough explosive.

They've also starting moving embassies from prime, downtown real estate to suburban locations where they can find the set-back space. This may be a wash economically as downtown properties can sell for a lot of money, enough to buy bigger properties in a less desirable area. But there's another cost, too...

An embassy has a very public function, both for Americans abroad and the nationals of the country. Make it difficult for people to get there and you can guarantee that they won't bother trying. This rather defeats the whole point.

It also sends a message to the publics that we might not necessarily want.