Contractor Colas UK – in conjunction with construction machinery specialist Highway Service – has developed an innovative safety system that beams a red danger zone around its biggest machines.
In a bid to reduce accidents around high-risk machines, Colas engaged with Highway Service to come up with a way to help keep its staff safe.
Working with Colas operational teams, Newcastle-based Highway Service took existing technology and developed it to create an LED-lit red zone around the Colas construction machines. The light cordon around pavers and rollers indicates to Colas staff where workers and vehicles should be – and where they should not venture.
The system uses LED lights located on top of the machine or on the canopy. At night, these throw a clear red box around the vehicle, marking out a solid red line around the sides of the machine to a standard distance of two metres. This can be extended to match the size of the paving activity at the rear of the machine with a five-metre clearance at the back in the case of pavers. This can be both front and back in the case of other big machines.
The system also includes blue arrow lights, which make clear to the roller drivers the extent of the exclusion zone at the rear of the paver. Highway Service experimented with different methods and used the LED lights because lasers are potentially harmful to sight. Only designated and authorised operatives should be in the zone and could be either inside or out as detailed in the site personnel’s risk assessments and method statements.
Highway Service has recently finished installing its safety system on all Colas vehicles operating out of the firm’s Newcastle depot.
Colas said that although it has no commercial interest in the system, it hopes to see it adopted throughout the industry, and is keen to share this within the international Colas Group, as well as with other UK contractors, some of which have already expressed an interest.
Carl Fergusson, CEO at Colas UK said: “Our approach at Colas is to inspire, pioneer and freely share improvements to safety. Our Colas Group innovation campus outside Paris is devoted to research and puts us at the cutting edge in responding to, or pre-empting, technical and social challenges by fostering the development of new products, processes and techniques.
“We are keen to foster relationships with other expert UK businesses which create innovative solutions which will be good for the whole industry – not just ourselves. We want to share this technology and are already sign-posting other firms to the developers, Highway Service.”
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