Cable barrier is used as a cost effective alternative to W-Beam in areas with less frequent impacts, like medians on divided highways.
Cable barrier, comes in a variety of proprietary and public domain styles.
The sources of the specific device names are documented here.
Need to know which cable barrier you are looking at?
Use the Cable Barrier Identification Guide.
High tension cable barriers "catch" vehicles. As a vehicle imapcts the barrier the posts give way and movement of the cable disapates the energy of the vehicle preventing it from contacting the hazard.
Minor impacts typically result in the breaking of a few posts, but the cable remains taught.
Major impacts can sever the cable or destroy the anchor causing the cables to lose tension across the whole length of the barrier.
To be completed