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Balfour Beatty supported Road Workers’ Safety Forum wins Royal Award

The Road Workers' Safety Forum (RoWSaF), a cross-industry group led by the Highways Agency and supported by Balfour Beatty and its joint ventures, has been recognised at the Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards for its innovative and collaborative approach to improving safety for road workers. The RoWSaF team collected the award from His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent at a ceremony at The Savoy in London.
December 20, 2013 Read time: 3 mins
The Road Workers' Safety Forum (RoWSaF), a cross-industry group led by the 2309 Highways Agency and supported by 1146 Balfour Beatty and its joint ventures, has been recognised at the Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards for its innovative and collaborative approach to improving safety for road workers.

The RoWSaF team collected the award from His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent at a ceremony at The 2902 Savoy in London.

The award in part recognised Balfour Beatty joint venture Connect Plus’s work in reducing the number of road worker carriageway crossings on the M25 by over 500,000 during the past eighteen months.  Similar trials have been implemented in Highways Agency Areas 4 and 10 by 1530 Balfour Beatty Mott MacDonald.

Other initiatives introduced by the industry partners of RoWSaF included sequentially flashing cone-mounted lamps on the approach to roadworks, the removal of off-side signing to eliminate carriageway crossings, making impact protection vehicles more conspicuous, light arrows, variable message signs and matrix developments, as well as increased use of both vehicle-mounted and static signs.

In making their recommendation for an award to His Royal Highness, the judges said, "This highly innovative and effective forum brings together, in partnership, those responsible for the engineering workforce, the combined knowledge and experience of so many commercial and statutory organisations, and ensures that the highest levels of duty of care are in force."

Paul Mitchell, chairman of RoWSaF and Head of Health and Safety at the Highways Agency, said, "This award is a fantastic recognition for the years of hard work put in by all of the RoWSaF partners. There is no doubt that the new techniques and procedures that we have introduced have saved lives, but there is still work to do and the forum will continue to drive forward innovations that make roadworks safer for everyone."

Tony Gates, Balfour Beatty managing director of Major Projects (Transport), who sits on RoWSaF’s steering group, said, “Balfour Beatty is proud to have been a founder member of the Road Workers’ Safety Forum and of the work we have done collectively to dramatically reduce risk to road workers. Unpredictable driver behaviour is one of the greatest risks our industry faces and we will continue to push and lead innovation in this area to reduce risk further for our colleagues.”

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