Drivers urged: ‘Don’t put road workers lives at risk’

A road junction in Merseyside, UK, has become a hotspot for life-threatening incidents to construction workers, says Highways England. Contractors have reported 23 incidents in two months where their safety has been put at risk by drivers ignoring overnight closures. Road users have driven into roadworks for the £3m improvement project at Switch Island, where the M57, M58 and three A roads all join. One lorry driver travelled through the construction area without stopping - forcing workers to get out
May 23, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

A road junction in Merseyside, UK, has become a hotspot for life-threatening incidents to construction workers, says 8101 Highways England.

Contractors have reported 23 incidents in two months where their safety has been put at risk by drivers ignoring overnight closures.

Road users have driven into roadworks for the £3m improvement project at Switch Island, where the M57, M58 and three A roads all join.

One lorry driver travelled through the construction area without stopping - forcing workers to get out the way quickly - while another incident involved a motorcyclist swerving around a worker. Meanwhile, a 4x4 driver swore at a worker who tried to offer advice before driving away.

Highways England says there are nearly 300 incidents per week of road users driving into coned-off construction areas where road workers are based at motorways and major A roads.

In addition, findings revealed there were over 1,200 incidents in the north-west of England alone during a three-month period last year.

Phil Tyrrell, Highways England project manager for the Switch Island scheme, said the upgrade will offer better journeys through the junction. 

“Drivers who selfishly and illegally ignore the closures to force their way through are putting both their lives and those of our road workers at risk – all to save a few minutes on their journeys.”

The Switch Island improvement scheme includes changes to the road layout and lane markings, new barriers between carriageways, coloured high friction surfaces, better signs and a new 400m shared cycle path.

LED lights similar to an airport runway are also being implemented in the road surface which will light up when traffic lights turn green to help drivers see which lane to follow.

New road signs will be displayed on three new gantries over the A5036 Dunnings Bridge Road, A59 Ormskirk Road and A5758 Brooms Cross Road to help drivers get into the correct lane to continue their journeys.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Highways England tests ghost busters
    January 25, 2021
    Getting rid of misleading or confusing road markings will be vital for safe AV operation
    Read More
  • Kapsch TrafficCom: 'The city is not made for cars'
    October 22, 2018
    Traffic can be a really big challenge. When you’re stuck, you’re stuck. Everything comes to a standstill. But Alexander Lewald describes how existing infrastructures can be used more efficiently and how demand can be managed. A few figures to start with: in Los Angeles, the average driver spends 102 hours a year in traffic – that’s more than four days. This figure is 91 hours in Moscow and New York, 74 in London, 69 in Paris, 51 hours in Munich and still 40 hours in Vienna. Traffic is what causes
    Read More
  • Connected cones make for safer sites
    May 31, 2013
    David Crawford welcomes new lives for old road safety products. Traffic cones and barrels have traditionally been on the bottom shelf of the road construction and maintenance industry, typically forming visible soft safety barriers for temporary works at a lower cost than concrete alternatives. On both sides of the Atlantic, however, they are fast gaining new roles as instrumented components in advanced construction safety arrays. The EC-sponsored €1 million (US$1.31 million) Safelane collaborative innovati
    Read More
  • UK's Hindhead tunnel pushes the boundaries of traffic management
    January 23, 2012
    The new Hindhead Tunnel is the first in the UK to use radar-based incident detection. Paul Arnold, project manager with the Highways Agency, talks about the project. The comparatively remote location of the A3 Hindhead Tunnel has resulted in it becoming one of the most sophisticated in the UK in terms of monitoring and control systems, according to Paul Arnold, project manager for the Highways Agency (HA), which manages strategic roads in England and Wales. It is the first tunnel in the UK to use radar for
    Read More

Highlighted Content