Considering Street Furniture: for the largest, abnormal loads
Thankfully, dependent on the size, route, country etc, the question of street furniture only arises on the very largest abnormal loads.
What constitutes “Street Furniture”?
In may ways, it is an ambiguous term – covering everything from keep left signs to traffic lights, lamp posts to pedestrian barriers, signposts or whatever. Over the years, things have become gradually more challenging – more recent additions have included traffic management and monitoring systems, disregarding the increasing plethora of overhead cables. Effectively anything that might be termed an obstruction which, slowing the convoy down, could result in extended delays and severe traffic disruption.
Dealing with multuple stakeholders for Street Furniture
The number of parties involved can be considerable – on cables alone, telephone and electricity to name just two – remembering that once a cable has been removed, it has to put back. Factor in teams removing physical obstructions and the total number of parties involved can be significant.
To add to the complexity, over an extended distance, there will be a number of changeovers – not all happening at the same time and place, effectively an unsynchronised relay.
Just a minor hiccup can cause turmoil. We can well remember when, without notice, the Italian police escort abruptly parked a convoy and disappeared over the horizon. Subsequently we discovered that they had been called to a bank robbery, taking place in the local town!
