Just as permanent road signs, such as speed-limit and directional signs, are crucial to maintaining safety, temporary traffic signage serves an equally vital role during construction and road works. Ensuring your construction business uses the correct signage is essential to not only protecting lives, but complying with UK regulations. At UK Safety Store, we exist to make safety simple for your business, allowing you to focus on what you do best. Here, we offer a detailed guide to traffic construction signage, including the different types of UK road signs you need to consider and which regulations you should be aware of.
What are the 3 types of Traffic Signage?
There are three types of traffic signs you should know if driving or setting up construction or road works in the UK. Below, we explain each type in more detail.
Regulatory Traffic Signs
Regulatory traffic signs indicate prohibited, restricted or required actions for road users. These signs use either a red (for prohibited and restricted) or blue (for mandatory) circle, depending on the type of action depicted. For example, a permanent or temporary speed limit sign would be shown by a red sign, whereas a ‘keep this area clear’ sign would be blue. The two exceptions to the shapes of these signs are the ‘stop’ and ‘give way’ signs, which use a red heptagon and blue triangle respectively.
Warning Traffic Signs
Traffic warning signs are shown in a red triangle and highlight risks or hazards to road users. There are however some exceptions to this triangle shape, including the road closed sign and site entrance signs. If your project could impede on the safety of road users, then you must install signage to inform road users and reduce risks as much as possible. For example, if your project requires temporary traffic control to ensure single-file traffic, you must install a compliant sign warning drivers of the upcoming traffic lights.
Guide Traffic Signs
Guide traffic signs typically include information to direct road users in the appropriate direction, including an ‘exit’ sign on a motorway. These signs can be identified by their blue colour and circular or square shapes. In construction, you may need to use guide traffic signs if your work obstructs road users’ views of an existing, permanent guide sign, or if you need to provide updated guidance due to the nature of your project.
Traffic signage regulations
The Safety At Street Works And Road Works (2013) codes of practice succinctly details the requirements of the Department of Transport’s Chapter 8 regulations, which provides thorough information on road works signage. To comply with UK regulations and ensure safety of workers and road users, you must ensure a consistent series of signs to inform road users of the construction work and any hazards, including a road work sign, road narrows ahead sign (if your project impedes on the natural width or traffic flow of the road) and a road works end sign. Road works must be bookmarked by road works ahead and road works end signs. These should be placed within 50m of the road works (both ways) and in such a way that footways are not reduced below 1m in width. Temporary road signs, such as a temporary traffic lights sign, are vital to ensuring safety and legal compliance during your construction project.
The site manager is responsible for ensuring the installation and maintenance of all required signage and traffic cones. However, to ascertain what actions you must take, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999) state that a risk assessment must be carried out before work can begin. This includes a five-step process whereby risks are identified, and every measure is taken to remove or minimise the impact and likelihood of said risks. A thorough risk assessment not only ensures you install appropriate signage and protect the safety of workers and road users, but it provides evidence that every effort has been made to comply with regulations.
UK Safety Store stocks an extensive range of construction safety signs to help your business comply with regulations, protect lives, and focus on what it does best. If you’d like to learn more about the regulations and types of construction safety signs, discover our guide to the types of construction signs your business might need.
Darren Taylor, managing director of UK Safety Store
With over 30 years' experience in the manufacturing and regulations of safety signs, our managing director Darren prides himself on providing the very best services and insights for all UK Safety Store customers.
