Working on the highway.

[Jon Lad]

I was looking at the thread JackTaylor, the young lad still at college posted the other day, showing pictures of his private & college work. There were a few posts regarding working in/near the highway and having to stop traffic by standing in the road and the road rage etc that can ensue from this.

 

Can someone clarify what the law is? I was told that it is illegal to stop traffic by just standing in the road with your hand up even with warning signs and cones. You can only use traffic lights or Stop - Go boards, in addition to cones and warning signs.

[Lancstree]

I believe you can legally stop traffic for a maximum of 2 min using 'stop works' boards. Obviously traffic would have to be stopped both ways using two traffic control workers. I've seen people walk out in live traffic and throw a cone out in the middle of the road to stop traffic and that gets everyone wound up and they tend to go around you instead. I think you would need to give the highways agency 6 weeks notice for any other traffic control such as stop go boards or temporary traffic lights.

[Brushcutter]

I was looking at the thread JackTaylor, the young lad still at college posted the other day, showing pictures of his private & college work. There were a few posts regarding working in/near the highway and having to stop traffic by standing in the road and the road rage etc that can ensue from this.

 

Can someone clarify what the law is? I was told that it is illegal to stop traffic by just standing in the road with your hand up even with warning signs and cones. You can only use traffic lights or Stop - Go boards, in addition to cones and warning signs.

 

I'm sure it most likely is. It doesn't look very good IMO saying that i've never done it anyother way. I mean if you've spent 600 odd quid on your chapter 8 kit whats another hundred for stop go boards. Saying that we've had cars drive through our traffic lights while felling across a road as they were red for a long time so there fore broken.

[Mozza]

If we did every little single thing by the book, We'd never get anything done,

 

Don hi viz, put arm up = Traffic management

[sean]

If we did every little single thing by the book, We'd never get anything done,

 

Don hi viz, put arm up = Traffic management

 

ditto:thumbup1:

[combined tree services]

to work on the public highway you are required to apply and book road space . if you fail to do so you are risking a fine in the region of £2500. there was recently an incident down here where a company was carrying out some utillity work and were blocking one lane and had two guys out in the road stopping traffic without and road signs or stop and go boards , infact they should have been using traffic lights . any way there must have been an accidenent in the area because all of a sudden they were faced with several emergency vehicles comming down the road and found themselves stuck in traffic . this was caused by the utilitty contractor no notifying highways which in the end resorted in highway turning up and reading them the riot act before demanding they pack up and do one .

 

I know its a pain in the arse to have to get trained to set up TM equipment but no matter how short the job duration is i will always use TM to do the job , it gives us working on the road added saftey !!!!

[Mark Cattell]

Only the police can stop traffic using just hand signals.... If some angry so and so runs you down or drives into the work area its your fault!!!!!

We carry stop go boards if we need to stop traffic

[armchairarborist]

we hire in lights and extra cones for road closure jobs, red lights dont mean everyone stops though, must always notify highways dept at la, usually takes 2wk notice, once had to wait 10wks as there were other temporary lights nearby.. highways then inform emergency services and if possible they will use other routes,

[Mozza]

Dont get me wrong, on the right job, Ill do it all properly but jobs that "need" traffic lights are very few and far between, I Always put signs/cones out if road side but to stop the traffic we just stand in the road

[Jon Lad]

Is there a copy of the regs which cover this I can get hold of?