DRaider90
Uwharrie Off-Road Volunteering
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2007
- Location
- Weddington, NC
Based on some discussions going on I figured I would brush up on Safety Regulations concerning Road Work. Yes I understand Road Work isn't the same as trail work but the principals can be carried over. I learned a good bit and was surprised at how many regulations there are. But lets get down to the bottom line.
TRAIL WORK:
On the trails we won't be encountering high speed traffic so our risk is minimal. ORVs travel in most cases quite slowly down the trails, the ATVs and Dirt Bikes being the only exception. I know many of you have seen Dirt Bikes go flying down the trails getting air over the dirt berms. This is where our danger lies in trail work.
We don't want dirt bike riders smashing into our parked trail rigs, or us for that matter. I don't think we need to be wearing high visibility vests, or have a "traffic flagger" out etc etc. That is all over kill. Let me reference an image in the Road Construction Safety pdf.
Now on the trail we don't have any buffer space, and a limited transition area. In reality part of the transition area is actually the work space usually. So this is the model I came up with:
This uses our fairly small supply pool:
6 Cones Total / 2 with "slow" signs
2 "Trail Work Ahead Signs"
2 "Construction Zone Signs" (still working on getting these)
Considering we are working in a low risk area, I think this fits the bill nicely without getting into over kill. The side benefit that has been discussed in the other thread is this also raises awareness about what we are doing.
I know safety is probably something that most don't consider on the trails. Some probably think I am crazy for posting this. Its because you think hey, most everyone is going slow enough that we don't have to worry. What people don't consider is that it only takes one accident to put our trails at risk.
ROAD WORK SAFETY:
Now we are out on the forest service roads cleaning up stuff on the side or filling in potholes/doing minor repair work. We will need to have places to park our rigs, and a safe area to work in. Now again this a low speed zone but it doesn't mean you can throw caution to the wind. I don't know about some of you, but I have seen plenty of vehicles go flying down the forest service roads. All types of vehicles are guilty of this, but I see it most with vehicles w/ trailers. The last thing we need is a someone to get hit by a speeding vehicle while picking up trash or working on the roads.
We won't be able to set up this:
But I do think it will be more involved than our trail work layout. We may need at least one person physically on each side of our group alerting traffic to our presence. I don't think safety vests would be absolutely needed, but I think it would be a good idea for those 2 people. We will have to see what ends up working for us when we tackle a work day that involves road work/clean up.
Feel free to post any comments ideas on this.
TRAIL WORK:
On the trails we won't be encountering high speed traffic so our risk is minimal. ORVs travel in most cases quite slowly down the trails, the ATVs and Dirt Bikes being the only exception. I know many of you have seen Dirt Bikes go flying down the trails getting air over the dirt berms. This is where our danger lies in trail work.
We don't want dirt bike riders smashing into our parked trail rigs, or us for that matter. I don't think we need to be wearing high visibility vests, or have a "traffic flagger" out etc etc. That is all over kill. Let me reference an image in the Road Construction Safety pdf.
Now on the trail we don't have any buffer space, and a limited transition area. In reality part of the transition area is actually the work space usually. So this is the model I came up with:
This uses our fairly small supply pool:
6 Cones Total / 2 with "slow" signs
2 "Trail Work Ahead Signs"
2 "Construction Zone Signs" (still working on getting these)
Considering we are working in a low risk area, I think this fits the bill nicely without getting into over kill. The side benefit that has been discussed in the other thread is this also raises awareness about what we are doing.
I know safety is probably something that most don't consider on the trails. Some probably think I am crazy for posting this. Its because you think hey, most everyone is going slow enough that we don't have to worry. What people don't consider is that it only takes one accident to put our trails at risk.
ROAD WORK SAFETY:
Now we are out on the forest service roads cleaning up stuff on the side or filling in potholes/doing minor repair work. We will need to have places to park our rigs, and a safe area to work in. Now again this a low speed zone but it doesn't mean you can throw caution to the wind. I don't know about some of you, but I have seen plenty of vehicles go flying down the forest service roads. All types of vehicles are guilty of this, but I see it most with vehicles w/ trailers. The last thing we need is a someone to get hit by a speeding vehicle while picking up trash or working on the roads.
We won't be able to set up this:
But I do think it will be more involved than our trail work layout. We may need at least one person physically on each side of our group alerting traffic to our presence. I don't think safety vests would be absolutely needed, but I think it would be a good idea for those 2 people. We will have to see what ends up working for us when we tackle a work day that involves road work/clean up.
Feel free to post any comments ideas on this.