ArmorZone™ - the way of the future

The four laning of Russley / Johns Road on SH 1 in Christchurch is a four stage project that has been identified by the government as part of the seven roads of national significance (RoNS) and is critical for supporting economic growth, reducing congestion, improving safety and managing forecasted traffic growth on SH1.

Doug Forsyth, Site Manager for McConnell Downer Joint Venture (JV) explains, “we have the contract to complete the Avonhead to Yaldhurst Roads stage of this project and we are doing it in two phases. Phase one, which we started in January 2011, has seen some delays due to the Christchurch earthquakes with many of our resources being reallocated for emergency services. Thankfully we are close to our construction programme which is pretty good considering the circumstances.”

“While the four-laning is being carried out on Russley Road it is still open to motorists. Connetics are working on the undergrounding of all the overhead power lines for Orion and the JV team are working on the drainage system to one side of the road,” said Ian Rowland, Area Sales Manager, South Island for CSP.

With work on an active road taking place over 1600m, the safety of the JV staff and others is paramount. Doug explains, “we looked at various traffic management systems to create a safe workzone for our people. We considered using concrete barriers, which are hard to manoeuvre, and then we looked at the steel barrier, but the cost was prohibitive. The option we chose was CSP’s ArmorZone™ TL-2 Plastic Barrier and Terminal End.”

The JV will tackle the development of the 1600m stretch of highway in two sections and required enough traffic management barriers to create a safe workzone of 800m for their people with 500 ArmorZone™ barriers required to fit the bill. Once the first section of the highway is complete they will move the barrier into place for work to be carried out on the second half of the road.