The Traffic Management Contractors Association (TMCA) has released a video that demonstrates ways of eliminating carriageway crossings.
Filmed at last year’s Seeing is Believing, the safety video was made during a demonstration on a test motorway at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground. Although not filmed on an actual carriageway, the layout and process on a live motorway is exactly the same.
Entitled ‘Your Life in the Fast Lane’, the video shows how to setup and remove a lane closure installation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rn2BoEX3bc
The background to production of the video is as follows:
In 2009, the Highways Agency (now Highways England) launched its ‘Road worker safety strategy. It set out their proposal to adopt an ‘Aiming for Zero’ approach to health and safety with a view to eliminating all fatalities and serious injuries to road workers maintaining the network.
As part of this, they set a goal for industry of ‘Exposure Zero’ with an aim to eliminate the need for road workers involved in routine maintenance of the network to be on foot on the live carriageway, and a target date of 2016 was set.
At the time former chief executive Graham Dalton said: “We cannot do this alone. We need a cross industry approach with a commitment to change.”
The TMCA were already actively working on many traffic management issues with the HA, Highways Term Maintenance Association (HTMA) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) through the Road Workers Safety Forum (RoWSaF) and accepted the challenge to achieve this.
TMCA secretary Richard Pearson comments: “Over the next few years, the industry changed dramatically. New purpose built vehicles were developed along with new procedures for placing and removing lane closures on high speed roads where most of the serious accidents had occurred.
“Members of the TMCA are required to set consistently high standards for the installation, maintenance and removal of traffic management schemes and to be at the forefront in establishing industry best practice.
“In view of the above, the TMCA decided to produce a lane closure installation safety video, as we felt there was a need for a clear training aid for new operatives to the industry and to reinforce the new procedures to existing workforces.”
Over the next few months the video is expected to be incorporated into the HE Sector Scheme 12a and 12b training module for traffic management.
The video is available to download from the TMCA website www.tmca.org.uk
Seeing is Believing is Europe’s only event for indoor showcasing of highway products as well as outdoor demonstrations and testing in all lighting conditions. Seeing is Believing 2016 will take place on 9-10 November 2016.
