New safer road workzone practices

In the UK, the construction business Connect Plus Services is implementing new practices that reduce the need for crossings of live carriageways. These practices are expected to save the lives of road construction workers. Connect Plus Services is the company that has the contract to maintain, operate and upgrade the M25 motorway around London over a 30-year period. The contract is carried out on behalf of the Highways Agency. The firm has developed a new method of managing traffic approaching road construc
September 15, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
In the UK, the construction business Connect Plus Services is implementing new practices that reduce the need for crossings of live carriageways. These practices are expected to save the lives of road construction workers. Connect Plus Services is the company that has the contract to maintain, operate and upgrade the M25 motorway around London over a 30-year period. The contract is carried out on behalf of the 2309 Highways Agency. The firm has developed a new method of managing traffic approaching road construction zones, with the aim of saving the lives of site personnel. The method, which has now been approved for use on the English motorway network, will prevent millions of crossings being made by site personnel across busy live carriageways in front of traffic travelling at fast speeds.

Road maintenance is one of the riskiest employment sectors to work. Trials carried out by Connect Plus Services, with the support of RoWSaF (an industry body which develops ways to improve the health, safety and welfare of our road workers), the Highways Agency and the Transport Research Laboratory (777 TRL), have shown that improved overhead electronic signage and nearside signage removes the need for temporary central reservation signage as a way of encouraging motorists to slow down on the approach to roadworks. The method was piloted and implemented on over 1,000km of the network over a two-year period by Connect Plus Services, (a joint venture partnership between 1146 Balfour Beatty, 3005 Atkins and 2643 Egis Roads SA), with support from 1530 Balfour Beatty Mott MacDonald, and has already saved over a million crossings by personnel.

The removal of the need to place central carriageway signage across live carriageways applies to carriageways of over three lanes and will be a major contributor to the Highways Agency’s target of eliminating all live carriageway crossings by roadworkers by December 2014.
Highway & Network Management

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Key A14 upgrade for the UK to cut congestion
    September 11, 2013
    A joint venture comprising BAM Nuttall and Morgan Sindall will carry out the 4km widening of the UK’s heavily congested A14 route. The €28.5 million (£24 million) project is being carried out for the Highways Agency to reduce journey times more reliable, improve safety and support proposed local development. Mott MacDonald will carry out the design work for the project. Junctions 7-9 of the A14 are highly congested at present due to a combination of heavy commuter traffic and the high percentage of HGVs car
    Read More
  • New truck parking facilities for major UK route
    May 26, 2016
    Contractor Balfour Beatty is to construct new truck parking facilities alongside the M20 motorway in Kent in the UK. The package of works was awarded by Highways England and the £130 million deal covers the development of the proposals during the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) phase of the project. This deal also includes the construction of the lorry area subject to a decision to proceed from the UK Government. The £250 million truck parking area was initially announced by the UK’s Chancellor of the Ex
    Read More
  • Velocity-Balfour Beatty tackling potholes
    May 13, 2014
    It is the bugbear of motorists worldwide, and costs UK councils alone an estimated US$82.12 million (£50 million) in compensation each year. Now Balfour Beatty is partnering with specialist supplier Velocity and North Somerset Council in south-west England to tackle potholes using innovative technology which vastly reduces disruption to road users. The method, called ‘Spray Injection’ patching, is allowing Balfour Beatty to repair nearly 700 potholes a week on its highways maintenance contract repairing
    Read More
  • UK’s A14 upgraded route opening early
    October 14, 2019
    A key section of the UK’s important A14 upgrade project is opening to traffic ahead of schedule. Work to deliver the new stretch of dual carriageway for the A14 bypass is being completed a full 12 months early. The bypass section will open to drivers in December 2019, cutting congestion and journey times. Work on the 19km bypass section commenced in October 2016 and forms part of a programme of 33.6km of road works in Cambridgeshire, costing £1.5 billion. The road building project has been carried out by
    Read More

Highlighted Content