Page:UK Traffic Signs Manual - Chapter 8 - Part 1 (Traffic Safety Measures and Signs for Road). Designs 2009.pdf/58



The principles for the traffic management arrangements at sites where checks are carried out on the condition of all vehicles and the weight of goods vehicles are generally the same as those given for traffic surveys; see Section D3.26.

Signs used when vehicle checks are being conducted are variants of diagrams 830 and 830.1, "VEHICLE EXCISE LICENCE CHECK" sign to diagram 831.2, "CHECK POINT AHEAD" sign to diagram 832.1A, "VEHICLE CONDITION INSPECTION" sign to diagram 832.2A and "GOODS VEHICLES STOP if directed" sign to diagram 830.2. Other signs to diagrams 832.3 to 832.10A are also used to give goods traffic directions to a check point.

Refer to the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) for details of the traffic management arrangements at vehicle check sites and for the procedures used to stop vehicles.

Road condition surveys, such as skidding resistance, deflection testing, surface texture and profile measurements are generally executed on all types of road, both with and without hard shoulders, by means of short-duration lane closures. Vehicle-mounted signs are used involving one or more vehicles travelling at slow speed. In short-duration lane closures the vehicles may move continuously or proceed slowly along the road with frequent stops.

Mobile works should be carried out only during periods of low risk and during low traffic flows when congestion is unlikely to occur. The works will be carried out using either the Mobile Lane Closure technique or as single vehicle works.

The Mobile Lane Closure technique may be used only on dual carriageway roads and is restricted by certain traffic volume parameters, see Section D6.26.

Single vehicle works, see Section D6.25, may be used on single carriageway roads and involve the use of a works vehicle displaying a "keep left/right” sign to diagram 610 at the rear, refer to regulation 14 of TSRGD 2002 for signs permitted to be mounted on vehicles (see Part 2: Operations, Section O8.3).

Any proposal to carry out an inspection on a motorway shall be notified to the Highway Authority or their maintaining agent for maintenance and to the police.

The particular requirements for traffic management arrangement relating to surface dressing operations are included in the document "RSDA / CSS Code of practice for signing at surface dressing sites".

Advance warning of surface dressing, heating and hot or cold planing should always be given by use of "road works" signs to diagram 7001. A typical signing arrangement for surface dressing works is shown on Plan SC5 in Section D58. Advisory speeds of 10mph are recommended for any roads dressed for less than one hour and of 20mph until the road is opened to "self-regulated” traffic, see paragraph D3.18.7.

The "loose chippings" sign to diagram 7009 should be placed at 400m intervals on newly surface-dressed roads. For the use of "no overtaking” signs to diagram 632, see paragraph D4819 and Chapter 3. Traffic cones should be placed 9m apart on the centre line of single carriageway roads wider than 7.3 m. On urban streets and minor rural roads, the "road works" sign to diagram 7001, "TRAFFIC CONTROL AHEAD" variant to diagram 7010.1 and "loose chippings" sign to diagram 7009 with advisory speed plate to diagram 57