Staff at Multevo, a nationwide multi-faceted highway maintenance, traffic management and civil engineering firm, haven’t been counting potholes but they’ve certainly been repairing loads.
The company promises ‘turnkey’ solutions to a long list of highway maintenance tasks, including pothole repair and patching. And they currently have more than 20 INSTABOOM Go’s on hire from Solar Gates.
After winning a long-term local authority contract for pothole, patch and defect repairs, their Ops team knew its in-house highways and traffic management teams would tackle the job professionally but wanted to ensure they also did it safely.
This is where the award-winning, solar-powered INSTABOOM Go took to the stage.
As it’s remotely operated and therefore allows users to safely direct traffic at temporary work sites out of harm’s way, it was perfect for the hard-working Multevo team.
Operations Manager Karl Fairhurst said:
“The INSTABOOM Go keeps operatives out of the carriageway, it’s as simple as that.
“They’re easy to set up, simple to use and light enough to sling in the back of a van once a job’s done. They’re currently being used in a county-wide contract to deal with potholes. Over the duration of the contract, we expect to cover large swathes of the county.
Having the INSTABOOM Go’s with us has been a very welcome, extra safety element that has helped our teams stay out of the road and out of danger.”
Chapter 8 of the Traffic Manual clearly states: "Manually rotated stop/go signs should only be used if a risk assessment has determined that the use of remotely controlled signs is not appropriate.”
Similarly, the Safety at Street Works and Road Works Code of Practice (aka The Red Book) recommends using remotely controlled stop/go boards wherever possible.
Karl is fully aware of the guidance as laid out in these extremely important traffic management documents. He feels certain that the use of Solar Gates’ INSTABOOM Go has clearly helped operatives steer clear of dangerous situations where live traffic is concerned.
“It keeps our crews safe and the feedback from them has been good”, he said.
“I can wholeheartedly recommend using INSTABOOM Go for a wide variety of jobs, anything that involves operatives using TM at temporary worksites.
Having these as part of our everyday equipment means we can feel assured that there’s a huge and welcome reduction in the chance of team members getting hurt which is priceless.”
Karl says Multevo sometimes has to do up to six stop/go jobs per day for this contract alone. And sometimes, depending on the level of danger, they may not need to use the INSTABOOM Go.
He adds: “The team will turn up for a job and if it’s in a very quiet cul-de-sac or residential area, so the traffic can be manually managed with stop go and there’s no call to set up the INSTABOOM Go. But when it’s a temporary site that’s on an A road, the INSTABOOM Go will be deployed, simply to prevent operatives from having to face speeding vehicles.”
Karl has been working in traffic management for more than 20 years and knows better than most how dangerous it can be.
“I’ve been on one or two bonnets in my time”, he jokes. “One time, some years ago I was doing TM for an event in Wales. I repeatedly had to tell a car to wait, and he didn’t look like he was going to put it mildly. I went to put a sign back out and before I knew it, I was on the front of his car and on the ground. I got up laughing but it’s no laughing matter really. Even with all precautions in place, signs, stop/go boards and everything else, there is always the possibility that someone could get hurt. That’s why we give the safety of our crews such a high priority.”