M62 safety alert

The Highways Agency is urging drivers to take extra care along the M62's upgrade roadworks. New signs that can be remotely controlled signs are being introduced to avoid workers crossing carriageways to erect existing signs used for lane control. A new gantry, ready with variable speed signs, is pictured. picture mike cowling april 8 2013

Now drivers are being urged to take extra care and not flout the speed limits at roadworks, to prevent deaths and injuries to road workers and other motorists.

The Highways Agency says that in the last three years, eight road workers have been killed in England and there have been many near misses, with members of the public driving through coned off areas or colliding with works vehicles.

On the M62 where the major construction work on the region’s first managed motorway is nearing completion, the team is replacing around 200 cones a week following hits by drivers.

The cones have been put in place on stretches of the hard shoulder between Brighouse and Tingley, in preparation for the scheme being opened later this year.

Project manager David Pilsworth said: “Road workers do a difficult and dangerous job carrying out vital work to improve our roads and to keep them safe and well-maintained. But they face danger every day while working close to fast moving traffic, in all weather conditions, and often at night.

“Roads are dangerous places to work, and this is particularly true as work on the scheme nears completion.

“In recent weeks, we have lifted the steel safety barriers on the majority of the hard shoulder between junctions 25 and 28 and replaced them with cones while finishing works are completed. These cones are the only ‘barrier’ protecting our workforce from the traffic, yet we have to replace hundreds of cones every week due to drivers hitting them.”