RoWSaF wins award

The Road Workers’ Safety Forum (RoWSaF) has won a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award.

The cross-industry group, led by the Highways Agency and supported by Balfour Beatty and its joint ventures, was recognised for its innovative and collaborative approach to making road workers safer.

The RoWSaF team picked up the award from His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent at a ceremony at The Savoy in London.

The award in part recognised the work of Balfour Beatty joint venture Connect Plus in reducing the number of road worker carriageway crossings on the M25 by over 500,000 over the past 18 months.

Other initiatives introduced by the industry partners of RoWSaF included sequentially flashing cone-mounted lamps on the approach to roadworks, the removal of off-side signing to eliminate carriageway crossings, making impact protection vehicles more conspicuous, light arrows, variable message signs and matrix developments, as well as increased use of both vehicle-mounted and static signs.

Paul Mitchell, chairman of RoWSaF and head of health and safety at the Highways Agency, said: "There is no doubt that the new techniques and procedures that we have introduced have saved lives, but there is still work to do and the forum will continue to drive forward innovations that make roadworks safer for everyone."

Tony Gates, Balfour Beatty managing director of major projects (transport), who sits on RoWSaF’s steering group, said: “Balfour Beatty is proud to have been a founder member of the Roadworkers’ Safety Forum and of the work we have done collectively to dramatically reduce risk to road workers. Unpredictable driver behaviour is one of the greatest risks our industry faces and we will continue to push and lead innovation in this area to reduce risk further for our colleagues.”