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Highway art - art in the road environment
highway A15 colored concrete noise barriers
When a highway climbs over a viaduct for instance, it can be a good
possibility to have the sound barrier broken up into distinct
rectangular planes with level tops. This complements the
curvature of the grade of the road. So often I see noise barriers, meant
for level roads, following the grade - and since they do not bend along
with the curvature they are broken up into segments giving a dreadful
overall effect. Some designers of sound barriers try to make them more
interesting by dividing their area into horizontal bands with cautious
(nauseous) colors, expecting that they will only be used on horizontal
planes. In practice this isn't usually so.
Making a virtue of necessity
I proposed to adjust the length of level walls to the grade, resulting
in segments of various lengths; where the grade percentage is low the
segments are longest. In this way the grade is also represented by
varying lengths of the different planes. Introducing color strengthens
the effect and makes driving more pleasurable in populated areas. Their
overlapping, having varying heights, which reflect the grade of the road
and a differentiated color scheme make their manifestation
comprehensible.
art along the highway