Composite Road Plates as an Alternative to Steel Road Plates

When digging trenches across a roadway as part of road works, utility installation or construction project the most frequent solution to cover up trenches is steel plates. These require specialist lifting equipment and are  difficult to transport and store. Our alternative solution is the composite road plate system.

The Composite Road Plate system from Oxford Plastics is the new approach to solving this problem. Only two men are required to deploy this and everything needed to cover trenches over typical roads can easily be stored on a single pallet.

Below you can see the simple steps needed to deploy a road trench system with only two men.

Composite Road Plate Underside Composite Road Plate Composite Road Plate

No fixings are needed on the inner pieces as they use a built in pin system to lock them into place.  No messy cold tarmac, awkward fixings or wasted time!

locking pins for road plates
The pins underneath the road drop down and lock the plate in against the edges of the trench.

Each inner section comes complete with the pins (3 blocks and 14 pins) so that you can deploy them straight away.

Some other advantages of the Composite Road Plate system are:

  • The surface is anti-slip.
  • Very little noise compared to clanging steel plates.
  • Increased safety during deployment due to much lower weight.
Lorry passing over road plate
They are able to withstand all standard traffic including 44T HGV’s.

Both the inner and end sections of the composite road plate system are available to buy from Start Traffic here: Composite Road Plate System.

Tuff Trench – The new shatter proof pedestrian trench cover

Melba Swintex has recently released a new trench cover called the Tuff Trench. Unlike all other trench covers on the market, this is made from Polyethylene which means that it weighs a lot less than other types and does not splinter, fracture or shatter. Traditional trench covers are made from composites that are heavier and can split at the edges. The Tuff Trench will just flex and return to it’s original shape.

Tuff Trench pedestrian trench cover

To illustrate how robust this product is, we decided to put it through some of our own testing.

In addition to the weight and durability benefits, the Tuff Trench is able to be customised from as little as a quantity of 100.

Tuff Trench
The Tuff Trench is available in almost any colour with a minimum order of 100.

Almost any colour can be chosen to match your corporate branding, your customers branding or the application. In addition, your logo or chosen text can be embossed during the moulding of the trench cover with a small one off tooling cost.

The standard yellow colour is available for same day dispatch from Start Traffic here: Tuff Trench pedestrian trench cover.

We are also able to supply the correct drill bits and fixings to secure these into Tarmac or Concrete.

Wheelchair / Kerb Ramp – New Range

Picking the best Kerb Ramp for your job is often confusing. One of our popular products is the SafeKerb – we are introducing today two new products designed to compliment this and fill out our range.

Kerb Ramp Review Roundup
From left to right: Kerb Buddy, Safe Kerb and Tricel Heavy Duty Kerb Ramp

To help identify which is best for your application we have put together a table showing the attributes of each.

Oxford Safe Kerb Melba Kerb Buddy Tricel Heavy Duty Kerb Ramp
Maximum Load 250kg 250kg 750kg
Grip Treads
Extra Wide Design
Smaller footprint
Efficient stacking
One man lift
High Side Guards
Can be bolted down

The Melba Kerb Buddy has been introduced with extra high side guards to ensure that mobility scooters cannot travel across the ramp diagonally and come off the edges. In addition, it’s slightly oversized design gives more generous passage over the ramp.

kerb-buddy-kerb-ramp-walking-up-small
The Kerb Buddy

The SafeKerb is the basic kerb ramp – compact, lightweight and does the job. It is very popular with home users, however it should be noted that even though it is compact, it is still larger than some people expect at 1265mm wide.

Safe Kerb Ramp
The Safe Kerb

The Tricel Heavy Duty Kerb Ramp is for those applications where there is likely to be high volumes of foot or mobility scooter traffic. It’s built to withstand the worst and has a maximum load rating of 750kg. In addition, it is the most efficient stacking of the three – a pallet of 30 is approximately 1m high.

Heavy Duty Kerb Ramp
The Tricel Heavy Duty Kerb Ramp

All three of the above products are in stock and ready for same day dispatch from Start Traffic below:

Melba Kerb Buddy
Oxford Safe Kerb
Tricel Heavy Duty Kerb Ramp

Low Pro Trench Cover – No fixings required

The Low Pro Trench Cover is the increasingly popular choice for contractors. It has a rubber edge with a reduced profile to prevent tripping and that grips to the surface to prevent slipping. Both of these make it safer for pedestrians. This can also eliminate the need to bolt it down using traditional fixings as with standard trench covers.

Low Pro Trench Cover

It’s handy size of 1125 x 1125mm means that it can be used on trench widths of up to 700mm and covers a wider area than the standard 1200x800mm sized covers.

The Low Pro fully complies with all relevant standards including the National Grid Footway Board specification T/SP/E/42.

This can be purchased individually or on a pallet of 30 and is in stock, ready for same day dispatch from Start Traffic: Low Pro Trench Cover

New scaffolding lighting for your project

Typically scaffolding lighting  has consisted of products that are large, inefficient and don’t tend to last. This new scaffolding light that has been designed in the UK from WHI Safeguard is changing that.

scaffolding lights

Built from high impact plastics and with a fully weatherproof design, it is designed to last. Running from just two AA batteries, you can achieve 4000 hours of illumination – and with it’s built in light sensor, it doesn’t waste any during the daytime.

The clamp system that it comes with allows it to either be clamped directly to the scaffolding or alternatively screwed to the wall. The image below show this.

mounting-options-scaffolding-light

If security is a concern, a padlock can be used to prevent it being removed from a scaffolding pole.

Start Traffic now has these in stock and ready for same day dispatch here: Scaffolding Light from WHI Safeguard