MOTORISTS will soon be able to snatch a first glimpse on the roads of a pioneering cone-laying vehicle that will eliminate the need for road workers to do the job from the back of a truck.
After successfully completing off-road testing, the automated cone laying vehicle has now taken to the road network for the first time.
So far, it has been working on the A5 and M54 in Shropshire. But further testing is planned for the Berkshire stretch of the M4.
Developed by Highways England and a group of industry experts, the vehicle avoids the need for two people to manually lift and drop the cones in almost all weathers.
With traffic rushing past, the bulk of this work is undertaken at night with the workers lifting up to ten tonnes of equipment per shift.
The automated cone laying vehicles, which could be in use by the end of the year, will be operated solely by the driver, improving safety and freeing up two workers to carry out other tasks.
Highways England head of lean and continuous improvement, Martin Bolt, said: “The implications of these vehicles in protecting the safety of workers are immense and we are delighted that testing is progressing so well. By taking the human element out of laying cones we are eliminating one of the greatest risks for road workers.
“We have received a lot of support from the industry as a whole for the automated vehicle and we are now getting some very positive feedback from those workers who have been trialling the Highways Care prototype on the live roads network.
“If this testing proves as successful as we anticipate it will, motorists could be spotting more of these automated cone laying vehicles on the roads by the end of the year.”
