O11MOBILE CARRIAGEWAY CLOSURE TECHNIQUE
O11.1BACKGROUND
O11.1.1 On high-speed dual carriageway roads, some maintenance tasks can only be conducted safely on the carriageway when the road is clear of passing traffic. The movement of a short length of coning and signing to change the configuration of a temporary traffic management layout during major road works which takes less than 5 minutes is a prime example.
O11.1.2 Consideration should be given in the early stages of planning to the use of an approved Mobile Carriageway Closure technique to support the safe installation, maintenance and removal of temporary traffic management operations; see Section O11.23.
O11.1.3 The technique may be used for temporary traffic management operations that have been planned, e.g. the installation of temporary traffic management layouts, contra-flow switch-overs, and tidal flow changeovers. It is not intended to be used to protect the scene of an incident in an emergency situation (unless the resources needed are already on site).
O11.2DEFINITIONS
O11.2.1
The following terms are used throughout this section.
| Advance warning vehicle: | A vehicle which is positioned on the hard shoulder or verge as appropriate, which is equipped with a queue warning sign or tows it on a trailer. |
| Assembly point: | A point off the main carriageway, where the closure vehicles will assemble prior to the commencement of the closure operation. |
| Access point: | A point giving access to the carriageway, e.g. a junction entry slip road or the access from a service area. |
| Closure control vehicle: | The closure vehicle driven by the person responsible for the manoeuvres of the closure vehicles. |
| Control office: | The office responsible for monitoring traffic and the setting of matrix and also VMS signs. This may be either the Police Control Office (PCO) or Regional Control Centre (RCC) as appropriate. |
| Mobile carriageway closure: | The temporary closure of a carriageway created by a number of closure vehicles, travelling at low speed in line abreast across the carriageway. |
| Closure vehicle: | A vehicle, equipped with impact protection and closure vehicle signing, which when aligned with other such vehicles forms a mobile carriageway closure. |
| Closure start point: | The point on the carriageway where the closure vehicles start manoeuvring across the carriageway to travel line abreast, prior to slowing down. |
| Hard shoulder vehicle: | The vehicle that travels on the hard shoulder (if necessary), aligned with the closure vehicles, to complete the mobile carriageway closure. |
| Monitor vehicle: | The vehicle that travels ahead of the closure to monitor and mark the boundary of the traffic-free zone in front of the closure. Its driver also identifies and reports to the supervisor any stationary vehicles within the traffic-free zone. |
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