Essential site traffic control advice
Effective site traffic control is important to ensure safety. The right measures protect people in different vehicles, pedestrians, and infrastructure. The latter can be crucial when it is things like pipelines, transformers and storage vessels.
There is a lot to think about here if you want to reduce the risk of accidents and injuries. For example, you need to think about the type of traffic on the site. Then you must look at physical features like the site layout and measures like speed bumps and crash barriers. What we want to do is offer some essential advice and tips.
Types of traffic
As we said, always consider that sites will likely have a combination of people in vehicles and on foot. You need to think about road traffic, including commercial vehicles, internal vehicles, and staff or customer vehicles. There could be a broad range here, from huge trucks and tankers to bicycles. Then, you have to plan for pedestrians, including people who work on the site and visitors.
One of the most important things with traffic control is you should ensure that everyone knows the expectations for them. For example, you should have signs and road markings for directions, access restrictions, and more. Make it clear who has priority in different settings too.
What you should do is plan routes for different types of traffic, segregating where possible. Heavy vehicles should not be using the same access routes as employee or visitor vehicles. You also need to plan shuttle routes between buildings. Plus, you must think about routes for emergency vehicles. They need to be able to get in quickly without obstruction.
Traffic calming
A number of measures can help to calm traffic on different sites. For example, you may need signs to tell people what the speed limit is and where to go. Lights can also be vital.
In some cases it is good to use speed bumps and humps to enforce speed limits. However, you need to be careful using them with certain types of traffic. For example, they are usually not a good idea in areas with forklifts. They can cause them to unbalance, especially with a heavy load on the front.
Physical barriers are vital for traffic control too. You may need things like width restrictors to keep vehicles in specific lanes. Bollards are great as well because they can prevent access to pedestrian only areas.
Crash barriers are the most important physical barrier. They can prevent collisions between vehicles and pedestrians. You can also use them to protect infrastructure, including columns, ramps, and more. It is a good idea to use them where you have storage tanks, pipelines, and other hazardous or vulnerable installations. The last thing you want is a vehicle to crash into one and cause a disaster.
It may even be necessary to look at vehicle immobilisation. There are different measures here that can stop vehicles from moving. This can include things like arm gates and barriers or even simple wheel chocks. You can choose automatic or manual products to suit various needs.
Speak to us about traffic control
At Barrier Mart, we know how vital it is to manage traffic on various sites. This is the case whether it is a car park for an out of town shopping centre, a business park, a warehouse, or any other private commercial or industrial site. A good plan and the correct infrastructure can make all the difference in terms of safety.
We play a part in helping clients to improve conditions on sites. What we offer is a broad selection of products that includes barriers, bollards, speed bumps, and more. You can use them in various ways to achieve your traffic control goals.
So, browse our website today or contact us to learn more.