Page:UK Traffic Signs Manual - Chapter 8 - Part 2- Traffic Safety Measures and Signs for Road Works and Temporary Situations) - Operations 2009.pdf/98

SINGLE VEHICLE WORKS AND INSPECTION STOPS

Works such as gritting, salting, damping down of dust, and other works undertaken at a controlled speed nearing that of normal road speed, should not normally require special precautions other than those appropriate to the specialist vehicle concerned, but with damping down of dust, care should be taken to avoid times of high risk or inconvenience to traffic. Exceptionally, where the scale of these operations is unusual, a "road works" sign to diagram 7001, with appropriate supplementary plate "Gritting" or "Salting" variants to diagram 7001.1 should be used to give advance warning.

This section deals with short-duration stops, i.e. those lasting less than 15 minutes.

There is always an element of danger in activities undertaken on an operational road. There is a duty under the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974 and Health and Safety at Work (NI) Order 1978 on every employer and every operative to take particular care to ensure the safety of themselves and those affected by their actions. Some ways of meeting this requirement are: • carry out a risk assessment; see Section O2.2; • plan to do the inspection in periods of light traffic flow; • ensure that all staff are adequately trained, informed and supervised; • plan the inspection before going on to the road and try to keep to the plan; • do not embark on any activity if visibility is poor or during adverse weather conditions, except in an emergency. Whenever visibility is significantly reduced, the inspection should not proceed unless there are at least two persons present at the site, one of whom should act as a lookout to warn others of approaching traffic; • remain alert at all times and whenever possible facing oncoming traffic; and • complete the inspection as quickly as possible.

Whenever possible, short-duration inspections of structures or particular features of roads should be conducted well away from the traffic lanes, e.g. making use of verges or overbridges. Inevitably sometimes it will be unavoidable for people to be on the hard shoulder or on traffic lanes and any such carriageway inspections or measurements lasting 15 minutes or less should be carried out in accordance with the guidance in this section. If they are being carried out on a high-speed dual carriageway and are likely to last longer than 15 minutes but less than 90 minutes then reference should be made to the document "Guidance for works on the hard shoulder and road side verges on high speed dual carriageways" which is available on the following website: www.standardsforhighways.co.uk. This document is not valid in Northern Ireland and guidance for inspection stops in Northern Ireland lasting less than 90 minutes is given in Part 1: Design, Appendix [../A4|A4]]. In all other cases if they are likely to last longer than 90 minutes, inspection stops should be carried out as either mobile works or, if appropriate, as static works, with appropriate signing in each case.

On some roads, particularly urban or rural roads, the geometry of the road and adjacent features such as junctions, changes in speed limit or high traffic flows mean that particular care is needed when carrying out inspection stops. In these cases, in particular, a site specific risk assessment should be carried out prior to the inspection. 96