Roadworks: think of the workers
- robball6
- Jul 16
- 3 min read
Last week National Highways urged night-time drivers not to drive into coned off areas on the M6 where workers are carrying out extensive maintenance to a bridge over the motorway. Since the works began in May, and with an exit slip road closed at night, several drivers have been ignoring the closure, some of them at high speed.
Incursions into roadworks – both unintentional and intentional – are a common occurrence for workers on the UK’s roads. More projects and higher volumes of traffic tend to make things worse. In January this year, Construction News found, through a Freedom of Information request, that incursions into cordoned-off National Highways areas had almost trebled in 2024 compared to the previous year, to 5,899 incidents.
The Supply Chain Safety Leadership Group, made up from contractors who work for National Highways, set up the Impact Protection Vehicle (IPV) & Incursions Working Group to attempt to reduce the number of incursions occurring. Among the activities of the Working Group are campaigns to try and educate people about the dangers of driving into roadworks.
One such campaign last year saw the creation of a video by social media influencer Will Lenney - WillNE - who boasts 1.4m followers which warned about the danger of driving past warning signs. The group hoped this would be seen by some of the most frequent offenders: younger, male drivers who can make the wrong split-second decisions.
It’s not just those working on the high-speed road network that are put in danger by members of the public. Workers fixing potholes and highways engineers are abused too, simply for going about their business.
Some local authorities are taking action too. For instance, Birmingham City Council, working with its Integrated Programme Alliance, ran an ‘Expect Respect’ campaign in 2023 which included short films and information about road workers aimed at the public. Other measures included body cameras and de-escalation training for workers.
When it comes to fixing potholes, there are ways to make the process less disruptive for road users and those living and working nearby. Speedy repairs help limit disruption, but they must also be long lasting to avoid road closures taking place again once the repair fails.
Thermal Road Repairs’ system was designed with both these goals in mind. Our patented infrared technology heats up the existing asphalt just enough so that it can be mixed with a small amount of new material, before being compacted. The results is a seamless repair with no weak points – and hence no need to re-repair.
Our technology has the added benefit of being far quieter than other methods because it requires no noisy breaking tools. A road breaker – whether handheld or mounted on a machine - produces around 125 decibels (dB) of noise, equivalent to a loud rock concert. On the other hand, the equipment used for our repairs would not even wake a sleeping baby (true story!).
Yes, roadworks are annoying and disruptive. But they are also very necessary. And with more funding for road maintenance promised to local authorities by the government, we need to find better ways of communicating with the public about what’s going on and why.
Whatever activity is underway on our roads, those working on them deserve our respect, not abuse. Perhaps next time you find yourself in a car with someone who is ranting about roadworks, you can remind them of that.
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