WALLINGFORD - Ryne Dorsey got some strange looks from his neighbors at the start of winter when he set up a large wooden barricade around his mailbox.

Made of a thick, heavy board supported by two slanted posts and weighed down by sandbags, the structure stuck out alongside Route 68 like a sore thumb, reminiscent of a roadside advertising campaign.

Its purpose this past season, however, was simple: to protect Dorsey's mailbox from being destroyed as snow plows cleared the road at high speeds.

"Everyone made fun of me," Dorsey said. "They said 'What are you putting there, what are you selling?' It looked like one of those Eat-at-Joe's signs. But all of a sudden the people up the road, they all started getting their mailboxes taken out."

By the end of winter, after having their own mailboxes destroyed, Dorsey's two closest neighbors decided to join him in setting up their own barricades.

The barriers will stay up just a little while longer, in case winter decides to cast one last flurry of snow this weekend that will need cleaning up.

Protecting the mailboxes is a recent concern for the Barnes Road residents, who originally had their mailboxes grouped together on the south side of the road to reduce traffic concerns during mail delivery.

That changed in December 2005 when 31-year-old John DiPasquale was struck and killed by a pickup truck with a plow attached while crossing the street to get his mail.

The death highlighted safety concerns and provided impetus for the U.S. Postal Service to move residents' mailboxes directly in front of their houses.

Since having their mailboxes placed at their own curbs, however, the neighbors have learned that the speed at which plows pass by can be a problem.

"They push the snow extremely fast and take the mailboxes out every winter," Dorsey said, adding that speed is a general problem on that stretch of road.

"I've seen cars and trucks go 60 to 70 miles an hour on this road. There's always accidents."

Since the road is part of Route 68, the state Department of Transportation is responsible for snow removal.

Dorsey's neighbor, Graham Dale, has had his mailbox knocked down three times, once last year and twice this past winter, and is disappointed with the process he's had to go through to protect his property.

"It's the second year in a row that the DOT has basically waffled my mailbox," Dale said.

"I picked up the pieces and put it back together because it was a nice, ornate PVC mailbox. It was supposed to last forever."

According to Dale, he had invested more than $200 on his mailbox alone. He was frustrated last year when it was knocked down by snow from the plows, but at that point he was able to salvage and repair it.

"This year they pretty much completely destroyed it," Dale said. "... That's when I constructed that blockade."

Unfortunately for Dale, the blockade was later struck by a plow truck's blade, not only rendering his mailbox unusable, but sending his makeshift shield soaring into the road.

"Obviously, you don't have to be a good driver in order to miss that," said Dorsey. His own barricade has managed to weather the winter.

Left without a mailbox, Dale turned to the DOT for a replacement but said he was unhappy with the red tape involved and that the only replacement he could receive was a cheap plastic mailbox.

"I tried not to be too belligerent about it," said Dale, who added that he was given the option of filling out a claim form, but was told his more expensive box would not be replaced at the same cost.

"I suppose if I had a $14 mailbox broken and they gave me a $14 mailbox, I'd be OK with it, but I paid over $200 for a beautiful mailbox, and it's destroyed now."

But DOT spokesman Judd Everhart disagreed with Dale's conclusion that filing a claim for the loss of his more expensive mailbox would go nowhere.

"That's not accurate," Everhart said.

"We process hundreds of claims and make hundreds of payments each year. There's a bit of a formality to it. It's certainly not done overnight, and I'm sure there is frustration over any bureaucratic process, but it's there and it works."

Mailbox claims are not extremely commonplace for the DOT, which receives 800 to 1,000 claims annually, fewer than one percent of which deal with mailboxes, according to Everhart.

For those who haven't spent a lot of money on their mailboxes, the offer of a cheap replacement from the DOT is usually sufficient.

"This isn't the only place that it happens," Dorsey said.

"It happens all over. Basically, it's a guy just trying to do his job and they get close the curb. Half the curbs get taken out as well, because it's so close to the blade. It's sort of unfortunate, but it's something you have to deal with."

For Dale, however, a little reduction in plow speed might go a long way to protect his property.

"It's a financial issue for us," Dale said.

"You have a right to have a nice front yard and that's certainly not the mailbox that we wanted, but with the costs of repairing it, it's just an unfortunate fact."