Scunthorpe Steelworks - Road Traffic Solutions

Scunthorpe Steelworks

As novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) started to affect the UK, British Steel looked for ways to protect their staff, reaching out to Road Traffic Solutions to help control a number of entrances to site.

Project – British Steel contacted Road Traffic Solutions to help set out staged checkpoints at the Steelworks, to allow for anyone entering the works to be temperature checked. The plan was to split PLG (vans, cars, motorcycles) from LGV, HGV and other long heavy vehicles at gates A and D. There would be a further checkpoint at gate H, with the potential for production traffic to bypass if necessary. There was also a large diversion planned, round the former HPM for internal traffic travelling to SRSM3, and the right turn at CEW was to be blocked for access to Harrison Spinks and Metal Centre. The works would need special signs, made in house by Road Traffic Solutions, water filled blocks for solid barriers segregating areas at D gate and A gate, and at H gate cones to form traffic lanes for the checkpoints.

Solution – The two key objectives were to facilitate traffic movements associated with the Covid-19 health checks, whilst maintaining the flow of traffic both on site, and on the main road running to and from the town centre. Due to the nature of the requirements, and knowing that the plan would need to be fluid, we chose to deploy one of RTS’s Senior Events planner to support the customer during the design phase. The Road Traffic Solutions Senior Events planner worked closely with the customer, RTS CAD Drawing team and the RTS Operations Team. Within the first 2 hours, Road Traffic Solutions had surveyed the site and produced a series of traffic management plans covering a range of potential solutions.

The Road Traffic Solutions Operations Team; consisting of a Senior Events planner, Impact Protection Vehicle crew of 4 and several Traffic Management Operatives, laid out all of the equipment on Saturday 21st March, well in advance of the go live date. The full team returned to site on Saturday 4th April to deploy the solution. The Covid-19 temperature check process went live from this point. The Senior Events planner remained on site to proactively manage any adjustments to the traffic management solution. This project constantly changed throughout planning process. Dates, times and requirements changed rapidly and the Road Traffic Solutions team had to remain flexible in all aspects including; quoting, TM Plans, visits to site, to ensure the success of the project.

Feedback – The project hit the local news shortly after starting, for its ingenuity and rapid adoption. The safeguarding of the workforce at Scunthorpe Works is proving effective. The ability of Road Traffic Solutions to plan, mobilise and adapt so quickly and efficiently has been highly praised. Further alterations have been made to the site access since deployment, driven by the environment needed for the temperature testing equipment, supplied by another business. 

Learn about our services