Traffic Management on Construction Sites – What are your options?

Safely managing the flow of traffic and pedestrian areas on construction sites is vital for many reasons. Sites are typically inhabited by many types of vehicles including loads, cranes, HGV lorries and diggers – all of which have limited visibility, have moving parts and are specialist commercial work vehicles. 

Depending on the nature of your work, your construction site will typically need vehicles to flow in and out of the site to fulfill various functions. From delivery trucks to staff cars, you need clearly segregated access points, space for large lorries to turn around safely, and walkways for staff and visitors to travel around the site on foot without undue risk.

While having dedicated traffic controllers or supervisors on site is always valuable, with the practicalities of managing a busy site, it’s essential to consider what other measures you can put in place as a failsafe security measure to manage the flow of vehicles through your site. 

Below, we summarise some of the core risks and vehicle management strategies most popular with some of the busiest construction premises in the UK.

Types of Traffic on Construction Sites

As mentioned, there are many different types of vehicles flowing through a construction site on a daily basis, including:

• Staff, supervisors and tradespeople arriving for work, often in different shift patterns.
• Deliveries of materials, resources and construction components.
• Low-loaders transporting specialist vehicles to and from the site.
• Plant, including dump trucks, HGVs and excavators.

Given that many site managers have a range of different vehicles requiring access to a construction area throughout the day, it is essential to have traffic management strategies to ensure they can access the relevant facility safely and minimise any crossovers between pedestrian walkways and traffic through routes. It’s essential not just to consider where and how vehicles travel into and out of the construction site, but where they can turn, park, and be offloaded.

What are the Legal Requirements for Construction Site Traffic Management?

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 set out the rules by which construction sites must cater for vehicular activity.

Those responsible for site planning are required to organise traffic to ensure that, as much as is practicably possible, they cater for vehicle and pedestrian movement to ensure there is no risk to health or safety.

In essence, the law requires construction site managers to:

• Risk assess their sites, identify the key areas requiring action, and review those risk assessments periodically or whenever circumstances change.
• Share the outcomes of such an assessment with the relevant personnel, and ensure that safety measures have been correctly implemented.
• Provide training and safe working awareness training to all personnel or site visitors, or appoint staff to accompany visitors and supervise their safety.
• To consult with the workforce when assessing critical areas of risk and establish a dialogue about how they manage exposure to potential hazards.
• Appoint appropriately trained and skilled staff members to be responsible for overseeing operations in alignment with risk mitigation policies.

Practical construction site traffic management actions

Every construction site is different, so there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution that will remove every site’s hazard. However, some of the common ways to manage traffic safety in the construction industry are:

• Create segregated traffic through points and pedestrian walkways with clear barriers and lighting, and crossings where access points meet.
• Install signage and directions to ensure vehicles only access appointed areas.
• Schedule deliveries and material offloads in designated areas, and in assigned time slots.
• Assign different entry points and exit points for different vehicle types and/or pedestrian and vehicular access.
• Keep roadways clear of blockages, hazards and potholes.
• Block off unauthorised entrance points to ensure vehicles are prevented from entering pedestrian zones.

If there are any doubts about your core risks and the right way to resolve them, the Clearway team is always available to assist with the risk assessment process and make recommendations for the best solutions.

Construction Site Traffic Management Options

Clearway UK works with construction site planners and managers of all sizes, offering a wide range of solutions to ensure you lower the risk factor of all of your identified hazards.

Each of our vehicle control options is adaptable and may be used as a standalone service to reduce your critical hazards or with other safety measures as part of a comprehensive solution.

Essential construction site traffic management services include:

• Access Control: One of the most efficient ways to manage vehicular access to your construction site is to opt for an advanced access control system. Options include high functionality remote passes and intercoms, to ensure only authorised personnel are permitted entry.

Supervisors can also use this type of entry management system to automate the lifting of gates, actioned only when an appropriate staff member has been identified to accompany a visitor to the relevant part of the site.

• Concrete Barrier Hire: Hiring barriers is one of the fastest ways to create a physical, immovable barrier around your construction site. Concrete blocks are also an effective way to direct traffic, create parking bays, and prevent access outside of designated roadways.

Hiring services are available on either a long-term basis or for a short-term project. Clearway offers a range of blocks in terms of size, weight, and crash tested strength dependent on your requirements.

• Perimeter Security Solutions: Your perimeters are always the weakest point of site security. We offer a vast range of options to shore up your perimeters’ safety and ensure that criminal breaches or accidental access are never an issue.

From construction site CCTV surveillance to anti-climb fences, staffed security patrols to mobile inspections, there are many different ways to defend your perimeters and ensure that all site activity is safely contained.

While managers must always take responsibility for traffic management on construction sites seriously, there are multiple solutions to create a robust strategy to safely manage all vehicle access and activity around even the busiest construction sites.

Contact Clearway for professional, experienced advice about the best construction site security solutions for your site.