Portable pedestrian pods take top safety award

An ingenious way of providing safe access for pedestrians around the stockpiles and plant area at Hanson UK’s Needingworth sand and gravel quarry in Cambridgeshire has won a top industry award.

The portable pedestrian access system, initiated and developed by the site safety committee, won the TUC Trophy for worker involvement at the Mineral Products Association’s 2017 health and safety awards in London.

The idea is based around linking conventional portable moulded walkway barriers with a series of self-contained safety zone pods sited at points where traffic or mobile plant crosses the route. It means that as stock piles move, or access is required to different parts of the plant, a safe walkway can be instantly created by simply moving the barriers and pods.

“Development of the system was a team journey involving everyone on site,” said unit manager Hilton Law. “We started with just the moulded barriers, then designed a small enclosed platform with a gate on either side to give pedestrians a safe haven to stop and look out for traffic before crossing busy roads. Flags were added to make the pods more visible to vehicles and finally we fitted solar powered LED lights activated by a sensor in preparation for winter working.

“The main access pod close to the unit office can be moved with a fork-lift truck; smaller ones can be moved by hand.”

Aggregates managing director Phil Redmond congratulated everyone involved. “It was a great team effort to get the idea implemented and it has the potential to be introduced at many other sites,” he said.