UK contractor Charcon Construction Solutions worked with Delta Bloc UK, which develops, manufactures, supplies and installs permanent and temporary concrete road safety barriers.
The Highways England scheme between junction 16 at Crewe and junction 19 at Knutsford has seen a new 32km concrete safety barrier installed in the central reservation. Placing a rigid concrete barrier in the central reserve, instead of steel, is designed to reduce the risk of vehicles crossing onto the opposite carriageway in collisions and is likely to require fewer repairs, cutting the need for lane closures.
As part of the motorway upgrade, the hard shoulder is also being converted to a permanent extra lane and new variable speed limits will help to tackle congestion. Using the specially designed moulds from Delta Bloc, Charcon manufactured around 5,000 barriers – each weighing 4tonnes. Manufacturing took place off-site in a factory to guarantee quality control.
Delta Bloc installed them using a rubber-tyred excavator and mechanical scissor grab. Because the barriers were precast, Delta Bloc could lay up to 600m per day. This was up to six times faster than using more traditional slipform concrete construction methods which involves extruding concrete on site to form the barrier. It also means that installation continued during inclement weather which can prove difficult when using cast-in-situ concrete methods of construction, said Richard Baldry, general manager for Charcon Construction Solutions which has been working with Delta Bloc for the past five years.
