Solving workforce protection on curved roads around Telford town centre

About the project

When a programme to improve Telford town centre’s road links began in October 2016, two roads in particular, Hall Parkway and Hollinsgate, challenged traffic management designers. This was due to the curvature of the road leading in and out of roundabouts and their upgrade from single carriageway to dual carriageway.

A-Plant Traffic Management were awarded additional works to source barriers that could accommodate the curvature of the roads and provide temporary workforce protection for the contractor, Alun Griffiths, during the carriageway upgrades.

The solution

Richard Wedley, Business Development Manager from A-Plant was responsible for sourcing these, and considered the choice. “Steel barriers were not an option because they could not accommodate the curvature of the road leading off the roundabout onto Hall Parkway. There was also additional labour of pinning the barriers to the road surface to provide suitable containment levels, so concrete barriers were an obvious solution.”

Richard approached APC Civils and after a site visit by the team, APC installed over 375LM of barriers to the Telford site.

The benefits

• To accommodate the curvature of the road, the barrier profile and integral JJ hook connecting system allowed for greater flexibility of alignment. Where the curves were too tight, shorter blocks were used to reduce the radius, letting the barriers follow the kerb line.

Inter-connecting JJ hook

• Because the barriers did not require pinning down to the road surface, this made the installation quicker with less labour involved – making time and money savings for A-Plant Traffic Management and the contractor.
• Using the ‘duck’ to lift and install barriers made sure they were lifted and placed in one secure movement. This meant people didn’t have to work at height while offloading barriers from HGVs.

Working with APC Civils

Richard Wedley was impressed with the level of service. “APC offered competitive prices and were able to come to site to review our requirements and deploy with extremely short notice. We were able to meet our traffic management obligations to our client and cause no delays in the construction programme.”

“I was looking for an alternative supplier of temporary barriers and first met Shane Clarke and the APC team at ‘Seeing is Believing’ trade show. I liked the connectivity and efficiency benefits of their barrier system and valued meeting the people behind the company to build good working relationships.”

“I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend APC Civils. I couldn’t fault their service, delivery or barrier system. They promised to deliver and they delivered!”