ADVANCE SIGNING
O7.2.63 The need for advance warning signs to be placed shall be dependent upon the nature and duration of the incident, the individual site conditions and the risk assessment undertaken at the scene. The availability of EMS/VMS for advance warning shall always be considered.
O7.2.64 Before deploying advance warning signs, consideration shall be given to the emergency services that may need to use the hard shoulder to access the incident.
O7.2.65 The amount of advance warning required will depend upon local traffic speed and road alignment approaching the incident. If advance signing is required on high-speed dual carriageway roads, it should be provided at 300, 600 and 900 m in advance of the incident on the hard shoulder, verge and/or central reservation as appropriate. On high-speed single carriageway roads this may be reduced to two signs provided at 150 and 300 m in advance of the incident and on all roads with a speed limit of 40 mph these distances should be 50 and 100 m. On roads with a speed limit of 30 mph or less, a single sign placed 50 m in advance of the incident may suffice. O7.2.66 Advance warning of an incident may be provided by use of "INCIDENT SLOW" signing as a minimum (or police equivalent – refer to paragraph O7.1.6). Where appropriate this may be supplemented by use of "INCIDENT USE HARD SHOULDER", and "REJOIN MAIN CARRIAGEWAY" signing if available. Note that these signs require authorisation for use outside the Highways Agency network.
ROLLING ROAD BLOCKS O7.2.67 Emergency rolling road blocks shall be provided only by police or traffic officers in suitably equipped vehicles. ISUs will not be directly involved in holding back traffic at any time. Rolling road blocks shall not be provided by ISUs unless complying with the Mobile Carriageway Closure technique (see Section O11).
O7.2.68 A rolling road block shall be considered for the following tasks:
- placing or removing traffic management signs/equipment in the central reservation;
- removal of debris on the carriageway;
- setting out or removing a lane or carriageway closure;
- recovery of a broken-down vehicle to the hard shoulder; and
- stray animals on the motorway.
REMOVAL OF ETM
O7.2.69 ETM shall be removed completely as soon as the incident has been fully dealt with. Where an incident is likely to take longer than 90 minutes to resolve, ETM should be replaced by traffic management meeting the full requirements of Part 1: Design as soon as practicable following a dynamic risk assessment.
O7.2.70 When replacing ETM, ISUs shall deploy their traffic management equipment immediately adjacent to the ETM taper as a minimum, or in accordance with their own incident traffic management procedures.
O7.2.71 When replacing ETM with a full temporary traffic management deployment it will normally envelop the ETM coning and signing. This will allow the ETM to be removed once the ISU’s temporary traffic management is fully in place.
O7.2.72 ETM signing should be removed as quickly as possible after an ISU deploys compliant temporary traffic management. A mixture of signing should never be left as it may confuse motorists.
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