Hello All, I am after advice on pedestrian/traffic segregation please? The background: At our site we have 50mm tubular barriers core drilled into the ground to protect pedestrians as they walk out into the factory at various points. We operate a fleet of FLT’s mainly 5 tonne but have one 7 tonne and one 16 tonne FLT in the factory. Over the years the factory has become very compact and the FLT drivers can have a difficult job maneuvering around the factory. I have had all the FLT’s restricted to 7kph and have had the larger barriers installed at key points but they are still caught. In an ideal world I would like to remove all the 50mm tube barriers and replace them with plastic heavy duty barriers but have hit a block with management. Unfortunately Management won’t support me as the cost is too high. Support needed: Could someone please advise me on the impact or containment rating of 50mm tubular barriers? Even better, if you could share how you managed to get heavy duty plastic barriers installed and your experience with them I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Hello Thomas, Thanks for replying. Unfortunately the premises are what they are, the only option to do something about the lack of room is to relocate to another country and put hundreds out of work. I have inherited years of no consequence if you damage property other than it being recorded on paper. Since I have taken the Safety Role at this company I have had people retrained, speed limited the FLT’s, fitted collision detect and introduced the retesting of drivers who have an accident. PPT’s are of no use as finished goods have to be lifted into racking and staffing is at a minimum level so double handling with PPT’s and FLT’s is a non-starter. This is why I need data on impact ratings of 50mm tubing and want to replace the barriers with heavy duty plastic. If someone can share with me how they managed to overcome the stumbling block of “they are too expensive” it would really help my cause. My photographic proof of historically damaged barriers is of no use unfortunately as replacing one at a time like for like is seen by finance as being cost effective. I have tried the moral, reputation etc route but I am back full circle to cost. Sorry if this sounds negative but I feel as if I’m banging my head against a wall.

Hi Ellwood, I assume with the 50mm tubing you are talking about key clamp barrier. I've used this before as FLT / Pedestrian segregation and to be fair its purpose was never to protect employees from an FLT impact but more to stop them wandering into an FLT movement area. That type of barrier would bend and crack the welds on the footplates from a impact at 7kph, it would also depend on how well it was bolted to the floor. Barrier's will take hits and scrapes however as one potential solution and one I have done before was to run sections of angle iron along the front of the barrier to act as a buffer should a truck get to close (still a cost associated with this one). The plastic ones which take an impact and bounce back out are really good, however they are not cheap. One way to look at it would be to cost how much it takes to repair the current barrier system with the cost of the new barriers which could save on repair costs in the long term.