O11.16THE ROLE OF THE MONITOR VEHICLE
O11.16.1 The main tasks of the driver of the monitor vehicle are to:
- check for stationary vehicles on the hard shoulder in the path of the convoy. When the driver of the monitor vehicle encounters a stationary vehicle on the hard shoulder he or she should inform the supervisor at the head of the convoy; the foreman responsible for activities in the working area should be informed by the supervisor of the presence of any vehicle in the traffic-free zone;
- tell the supervisor, when he/she is passing the one mile advance sign for a junction or service area where the access point needs to be closed temporarily; the supervisor then instructs that the access slip road be closed, and then seeks confirmation that this has been done; see Section O11.18 below.
BREACH OF THE CLOSURE/PASSAGE OF EMERGENCY VEHICLES
O11.17.1 If the closure is breached by, for example, a motorcycle squeezing between the closure vehicles, or by an emergency vehicle, the supervisor should notify the foreman responsible for activities in the working area. A procedure should be in place for giving this warning, e.g. by using a klaxon with a pre-planned signal.
O11.17.2 Emergency vehicles should be allowed to pass the closure and this will normally be done via the hard shoulder, if one is available.
O11.18JUNCTIONS
O11.18.1 Correct timing of the closure of access points is important to avoid unnecessary queuing, e.g. on the slip road. The slip road should be reduced initially to a single lane using coning and signing. See paragraphs O11.7.6 to O11.7.8. As the monitor vehicle on the main carriageway passes the one mile advance sign for a junction or service area, the monitor vehicle driver should inform the supervisor who will instruct that the slip road be closed.
O11.18.2 Closing a slip road using a works vehicle: The works vehicle that will close the slip road should be located in the immediate vicinity of the slip road. When the request to close the slip road is made by the supervisor, the slip road closure vehicle should join the slip road and should gradually reduce speed as it approaches the section of the slip road that has been reduced to one lane. An operative should display a "STOP" sign to diagram 7023 and the slip road closure vehicle should come to a stop at this sign. When the signal is given to reopen the slip road (see paragraph O11.18.5), the "STOP" sign should be changed to "GO" to diagram 7024 and the slip road closure vehicle will move forward and pull off the carriageway to allow following traffic to pass, reopening the slip road.
O11.18.3 Closing a slip road using coning and signing: When the request to close the slip road is made by the supervisor, when it is safe to do so, operatives should place the cones and a "lane closed" barrier to diagram 7105 across the traffic lane that has remained open; see Plan MCC3. Note that this option of closing the slip road using signing alone should be carried out only where a risk assessment has shown that the traffic flow will be low enough that there will be sufficient gaps in the traffic for the signing to be placed safely without undue delay. When the signal is given to reopen the slip road, the cones and sign should be removed.
O11.18.4 As the monitor vehicle passes the slip road, the driver should check that it has been securely closed and should communicate this information to the supervisor. If the slip road has not been closed, the closure operation will need to be aborted.
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