Balfour Beatty claims to have become the first UK construction company to roll out automated cone-laying machines, which are designed to reduce the risk of incident by automating dangerous work.
Despite playing a central part in UK traffic management, a range of dangers exist for road workers when laying cones.
As a result, there have been calls from the industry to reduce the number of risks associated with the work.
Read more: Automated cone-laying vehicle deployed on UK highways
Balfour Beatty’s new Falcon ACLM automated cone-laying machine, built on Scania’s low entry L-series chassis, is designed to improve safety during cone-laying operations by reducing time spent by operatives on the road.
The vehicle can drop or collect cones in less than 10 seconds, meaning there is no need for operatives to manually perform the task, which Balfour Beatty claims can involve lifting five tonnes of equipment per shift.
Following an investment from National Highways’ Innovation Designated Funds programme, the Falcon machines, developed and supplied by Highway Care and technology partner SENN Engineering, have received regulatory acceptance.
Andy Whitmill, CPS service delivery director, said: “In limiting the exposure of our workforce to errant vehicles when setting out traffic management on the live carriageway, the automated cone-laying machine is an important new tool in delivering our objective of Zero Harm.
“It also mitigates the possibility of musculoskeletal injuries by removing the manual handling necessary whilst placing and removing cones.
“The automated cone-laying machine is a further commitment to our strategy to reduce on-site activities, especially in high-risk environments such as traffic management on a high speed road network.”
The machines are now being distributed across Balfour Beatty’s Connect Plus Services’ consortium, which oversees the M25 and its key arterial routes.
