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INSTANT ACTION on the motorways
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SPECIAL SERVICE VEHICLES ARE BEING DEVELOPED TO MEET THE NEED FOR A FRESH APPROACH TO EMERGENCY AND MAINTENANCE SERVICES ON MOTORWAYS
By a Special Correspondent FOR the first generation of road transport men selfreliance was a pre-requisite as they had to be ready to execute even quite major repairs en route, The driver of today has a full-time job just driving. In event of trouble the breakdown wagon is on call and increasingly the public authorities undertake the responsibility for ensuring that the road is clear ahead. Nowadays there is little of the parochialism which at one period Was liable to frustrate efforts at getting immediate action in some emergency and recently much study has been applied to the matter
of keeping traffic on the move.
Enlightened methods for dealing with trouble were an obvious necessity with the coming of the motorways and their application is still in the course of development. An experiment that may influence the general pattern of motorway administration finishes tomorrow, June 6. This is the unified police force working on the M6 and drawn from the county forces of Staffordshire,Cheshire and Lancashire.. Instead of depending on small constabulary posts at Keele, Knutsford and Charnock Richard, a main M6 headquarters has been in operation for sOme months at Knutsford with a chief superintendent controlling a motorway staff consisting of three inspectors, seven sergeants and 63 constables. They have given continuous patrol coverage, day in, day out, six sections.(each with car and motorcycle) being worked during the busiest times and three double-length sections at night. The vehicles employed on these duties recently have been Land-Rovers, Zephy is and Jaguars.' The police are the key personnel and co-ordinators in keeping the traffic flowing, keeping it under control, and sorting out difficulties. To help them—definitely experimentally7a helicopter is used to survey traffic movement and to keep watch on driving behaviour. Again experimentally, and up to the present used for purely local observation, four closed circuit television sets are located in the control room, a feature which gives the casual visitor a somewhat creepy feeling when he realizes that the manner in which he negotiated the neighbouring intersection, and the way in which he parked, may have come under notice several minutes before he set foot in the place. Despite the funny stories about the sets—including the one about all drivers now having to become members of Equity—the system of scanners has great possibilities. With, say, 100 sets in action an observer could make an effective check on the whole of the 88 miles of M6 in a matter of 10 minutes.
So far as the ordinary driver is concerned, however, it is the telephone mile boxes that form the life-line. This s39 system is effective on all new motorways and certain minor exceptions at present in being will in due time be overtaken. Using the M6 again as an example, there are currently 81 boxes, but when the extension to Lancaster comes into operation they will number something like 120, then bringing the now separate Lancaster by-pass into the scheme.
The boxes are linked together in groups of 10 on what may be called party lines, the exact location of each box being indicated by its number. In the case of commercial vehicle breakdowns the police normally do no more than provide a communications service, the driver reporting the cause of the trouble and then passing on the message by way of a reverse charge call to his employers. Most frequently a road operator will wish to make his own rescue or repair arrangements, the brokendown vehicle being left to lie by on the hard shoulder. Unfortunately, say the police, some drivers have not realized that the shoulder is still part of the road and they have failed to leave lights on at night, an omission that has been responsible for fatalities when other vehicles have had to leave the carriageway at the same point.
Initially calls for aid are automatically connected to the appropriate county police headquarters. Should an ambulance be required the message instantly will be routed to the county ambulance control, from that point orders being given to a depot or by radio to an ambulance already in transit. If possible, the vehicle nearest to the spot is the one to go into action. Ambulance personnel likely to be involved in these duties are specifically trained in the speediest way to reach any part of the motorways in their vicinity.
As motorway intersections are mostly somewhere near main centres of population, ambulances are likely to be available within a short radius so, contrary to what might perhaps be expected, there are no unusual problems of distance. Whilst ordinary ambulances will be used, transport officers have a strong preference, all things being equal, for employing their newest machines for motorway incidents. In this connection the recently introduced Morris and Austin LD ambulance chassis is likely to make a strong appeal with its power-to-weight ratio that enables it to keep pace with the average modern car and a top speed in the region of 70 m.p.h. So as to give consistent suspension under the very variable conditions an ambulance is liable to encounter, the LD (production of which began recently) incorporates the Armstrong Selectaride equipment with shock absorbers controllable from the driver's seat.
Fast transport stretcher cases by the motorway falls into a different category and here Wadhams (Coachbuilders) Ltd. has entered the field with a light, single-patient model, the first example of which was mounted on a Morris-Oxford chassis.
Outbreaks of fire on moving vehicles are fortunately rare, but when they do occur the procedure is parallel with that adopted for the ambulance services.
Of weather conditions 'that can create hazards to fast traffic quite the most serious is frost, which so easily catches the driver unawares,sometimes with disastrous consequences. During the worst months it is customary for the highway authorities to keep standby staff on duty at the various motorway works units and for them to receive advance warnings from the Meteorological Office that salting and gritting is likely to be necessary. Often in these circumstances there will be an immediate spread of rock salt so that icing is avoided even though temperatures may be at frost level. The police night patrols pay. close attention to evidence of ice formation and when demanded by the state of the road will contact the appropriate local authority foreman so that he can get salting in progress without delay
Much research into the most suitable design for a saltinggritting-snowploughing unit for the motorways has been undertaken by the Ministry of Transport. Among the problems is the importance of quick response to the starter, even when a vehicle has had only irregular use and has been standing out in the open. Means of combating the corrosive effects of the salt-grit-slush compound have been the subject of close investigation. As a result new forms of protection have been introduced on the latest of the specialized vehicles thus engaged. Indicative of current practice are the spreader bodies by Atkinsons of Clitheroe Ltd., a company in the Solar Industries Group, on sixwheel, all-wheel-drive chassis by Atkinson Vehicles Ltd., the A.E.C. 11-3-litre six-cylinder oil engine being here employed. The body, incidentally, is manufactured in various capacities from 5 tons upwards for fitting to any chassis.
Overseas practices are frequently quoted by critics of British snow-clearance methods but the Ministry is fully satisfied that the newest machines, giving variable asymmetric spreading, are the more efficient for home conditions,. The mechanism on the machines mentioned can be varied to ensure a spread of rock salt as required from H oz. per sq. yd to 1-} oz. per sq. yd., distribution being effected from either near-side, off-side, or both at the same time. From a rubber moving-floor the rock stilt is conveyed by a worm feed to chutes that carry the material on to horizontal spinner discs located on each side of the body. Vertical lugs are used to assist the spreading velocity.
On the Atkinson chassis extra protection has been provided for the clutch master cylinder and the brake valve by bringing them into the cab. So as to prevent the ingress of salt both the hydraulic clutch and the six-speed gearbox are completely enclosed and glass fibre covers are fitted to the rear brake drums. Among other points, the springs are gaitered, all air-pressure piping and wiring is in nylon, brake cables have p.v.c. coating, and the pressure piping and electric wiring have been run on the outside of the chassis so as to afford the best accessibility. All in all, everything practicable has been provided to ensure that no failure shall interrupt the work once it is in progress.
Whilst routine maintenance on the highways themselves is performed by standard design appliances, a number of modifications have been made available to facilitate work in this sphere. The cleansing of hard shoulders is one of the objectives of the Johnston Wide Sweep attachment, giving a 6-ft. clearance, which is produced by Johnston Brothers (Engineering) Ltd. for use with that company's suction sweepers. A similar optional fitting is provided for the Bedford-Lacre sweeper. Mechanized sweeping is, of course, a virtually continuous process on these arteries.
Gully emptying on motorways poses a number of problems, as obstruction of the carriageway must be kept to the minimum; therefore, the emptying unit must largely work from the central reservations. With this situation in mind the Yorkshire Patent Steam Wagon Co. has developed a trailer-mounted emptier which gives the utmost manceuvrability and is able to travel on soft surfaces without fear of bogging down. The 450-gal. tank will carry 300-gal. of gully sludge and 150-gal. of sealing water. As is customary in this manufacturer's designs the load is discharged by a pressure plate and ram, being expelled in a dry state without tipping. The two-wheel trailer is suitable for towing by any proprietary tractor that is equipped with hydraulic pump and reservoir.
Means for increasing motorway safety and for ensuring that maintenance in all its forms reaches the highest standard of efficiency are under constant study by the Ministry. Close attention is also being paid to development of appliances for motorway use by a number of manufacturers with experience in local authority work. The chances are that many interesting modifications of current design and practice will be the subject of trial before the motorways are much older.