Spotted at the corner gas station on a recent walk:
Judging from the tire tracks and extrapolating from recent weather, a snowplow driver misjudged the truck’s right-side clearance while backing.
That big steel tube didn’t put up nearly as much resistance as the architect figured after consulting the relevant building codes:
The paint seems to have been the only thing holding the other side together:
Google Streetview suggests the barriers were new-ish in May 2009:
Steel is a great construction material, but it doesn’t fare well when installed at grade (or above) where it’s exposed to water and salt. On the other paw, they got over a decade out of it, so maybe it’s as good as it needs to be.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 