Delta Bloc | Shortlisted for materials innovation award at Highways UK 2018

Delta Bloc have been invited to present their proposal to win the award for Materials Innovation at the Highways UK 2018 Event, to be held at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham on Wednesday 7th November and Thursday 8th November.

The judges were impressed with their initial proposal and Delta Bloc were delighted to be informed that they had made the shortlist.

The pitch is ‘Dragon’s Den’ style: A 12 min session in front of a panel of judges. The format will be a 6 min elevator pitch, followed by fielding questions from the panel of Dragons.

We spoke to Tony Walker, Delta Bloc Director about their shortlisting:

HI: What is the Delta Bloc proposal?

TW: “Through our experience of the temporary and permanent safety barrier market in UK we have developed a solution that solves a number of site issues with one barrier. The use of our DELTA BLOC DB 80E precast concrete barrier system provides a ‘2 in 1’ temporary/permanent solution for the client.”

HI: So, what exactly does it do?

“With the ‘2 in 1’ approach, first the barrier is used as a temporary system to protect workers in the central reserve with performance characteristics comparable to other systems. Later the barrier is then shifted to its permanent location providing the high level of containment required in the central reserve.”

HI: How is this the perfect solution to meet the Highways UK challenge for 2018?

“Highways England recognised that, in order to meet its objectives for the enhancement of the SRN, the use of pre-fabricated components through off-site manufacture is expected to grow.

“This has led to a significant increase in the use of permanent precast rigid concrete barrier in the central reserve instead of using slipform construction. However, the benefits of using the ‘2 in 1’ temporary/permanent solution has not yet been fully leveraged by clients.

“If permanent barrier is first used in a temporary application, it eliminates the cost of rental and removal of one string of temporary barrier providing significant scheme benefits.

Innovation – what everyone is striving for

For schemes that require rigid concrete barrier in the central reserve, the typical way to provide TM that requires temporary safety barrier is to install a system that is designed for that application.

The reason for using temporary systems is that historically the permanent rigid concrete barrier is installed by slipform construction.

This method requires two rows of temporary barrier to protect the road workers in the central reserve. The increased use of precast as the permanent rigid concrete barrier has provided an opportunity to use the barrier as a temporary barrier first before shifting it to the final permanent location in the central reserve.

Not only is this an effective use of material on site, but there are many advantages gained by using the temporary/permanent solution.

The shifting operations that take place from the temporary to permanent position demonstrate the speed and flexibility of the precast barrier installation process.

Under normal circumstances the temporary barrier would have been charged to the customer at the relevant rental rate. However, as the permanent barrier is being used temporary first, it is paid for upon initial installation, and then remains on site free of charge. This significantly contributes to scheme savings.

Furthermore, a pure temporary barrier would have to be removed once it was no longer needed. By keeping the barrier on site, there are no vehicle movements or charges to remove the barrier.

Tony concluded:

“We hope that the innovative nature of the product and the clear savings produced as a result are enough to see us win the award. We’re really proud to be shortlisted and to win would be fantastic”