20 KILOMETRES OF BARRICADING, 17 KILOMETRES OF LED LIGHTS AND BLINKERS ALONG WITH 270 TRAFFIC MARSHALS AND SPECIAL IMPACT PROTECTION VEHICLES ENSURING SAFETY OF VEHICLES AND PEDESTRIANS ALONG METRO CONSTRUCTION SITES IN DELHI
The streets of the national capital Delhi are presently dotted with close to 20 kilometres of Metro construction site barricades to ensure the safety of vehicles as well as pedestrians along the under-construction Delhi Metro sites. To make these barricades easily visible, especially during the winter nights with low visibility, 17 kilometres of LED rope lights and blinkers have also been installed on these barricades.
In addition, over 270 traffic marshals are working round the clock to help in the smooth and safe movement of vehicles near the sites. These personnel are trained by traffic experts and play a major role in the safe movement of heavy machinery as well as cranes during nighttime to and from the sites. Road studs are also put on the roads to slow down the traffic while they approach vulnerable traffic points near construction sites. Warning signages indicating that work is in progress or diversion ahead are also installed sufficiently.
In Phase 4, dedicated Impact Protection Vehicles have been introduced for the safety of vehicles and workers when heavy machinery movement as well as placement of cranes are done on the road. These vehicles are specially designed to withstand the impact of rashly driven vehicles on the roads.
During the winters, visibility goes down due to heavy fog both during the day and night. To counter this, DMRC’s safety teams takes a number of additional measures. As mentioned above, LED Light Ropes and Blinkers are installed on the barricades. In addition, fog lights are installed atop the barricades. Reflective tapes are also put on the helmets of the workers in addition to their high-visibility jackets.
Wherever road diversions are planned, adequate diversion boards with the required signage are put. Elaborate planning is done, and the final diversion is executed in consultation with the Delhi Traffic Police authorities. At these diversions as well, a three-layered protection plan is implemented using plastic barriers, sand/water-filled drums and concrete crash barriers to ensure safety.
To ensure the safety and sturdiness of the barricades, especially during the monsoon season or periods with high winds, they are designed as bottom-heavy with provision of nailing to the ground. With the help of nuts and bolts, each barricade is also tied to the other. Therefore, it may have been noticed that Delhi Metro’s barricades generally do not move or topple even in adverse weather conditions.
The Delhi Metro also implements hard barricading using concrete crash barriers to protect vehicles from colliding with heavy machinery or temporary installations inside the sites in case of an accident. Interestingly, these concrete crash barriers are also eco-friendly and made by recycling construction waste. The hard barricades also have another two layers of protection ahead of them (plastic barriers, sand/water filled drums etc) so that the vehicles can be protected from hitting them.
To ensure the uniformity of quality and specifications of these safety materials, DMRC has included a chapter on traffic management in the contract conditions, which is a part of the tender documents and therefore binding on the contractors. These guidelines have been designed after thorough research, as per the experiences gained in Phase 1, and also as per the guidelines of the Indian Road Congress (IRC 67 codes are followed).
Because of the nature of work, mass transit systems have to be constructed in crowded city areas. However, despite challenges related to heavy traffic and congestion, vehicular and pedestrian movement around Delhi Metro sites has remained largely incident-free so far.
