SOLUTION

Road closures and diversions are disruptive for the travelling public and expensive to implement; with the whole country in lock down due to the COVI-19 pandemic the road was quieter than usual.  This gave us the opportunity to delay the repair by four days, enabling the increased scope of work to be completed at the same time under a full road closure.

OUTCOME

Utilisation of resources maximised the road space booking and in turn generated greater whole life value for the client without the need for an additional road closure.  We were able to make cost savings for the client by combining the works.  Planings were returned to the asphalt plant for use as RAP in future projects generating sustainability through recycling.

Our agile management team ensured our teams were able to continue working throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.  Additional measures were put in place to protect our teams and ensure we could work within the government guidelines.  We worked in conjunction with the SGN team, utilising the existing road closure to lay 300m² of binder surface course and 400m² of specialist high friction surface.  We replaced the ironworks and complete the white lining.  Work was originally planned to be conducted at night however, our client was keen to minimise the disruption to the public, so we conducted the works during the day.

OUTCOME

A successful project, resulting in significant savings for our client as only one road closure was required.  Daytime completion offered further savings, and with less traffic on the road due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the disruption to both residents and the travelling public was minimal.  The use of high friction surface treatment has further enhanced the safety of the road.

COVID-19 presents a unique set of challenges.  With many companies shut down completely, our team quickly implemented measures to ensure the safety of our work force whilst working within government guidelines.  More vans were purchased, additional PPE utilised and working practices refined toensure social distancing measures could be maintained.  The management team adapted to provide 24-hour support for our operatives.

OUTCOME

Our goal was to ensure the longevity of the new surface.  Areas that had failed significantly were planed deeper; an SMA binder course was then placed in addition to the SMA surface course laid across the whole site.  This will make the treatment more sustainable preventing the affected areas from failing again.  With the knowledge that further maintenance would cause major disruption we decided to add high friction MMA which is currently the most sustainable product on the market.