The summer season is grass cutting season at CGS. We have teams across the country out maintaining the verges, cutting the grass and generally keeping the highway assets in a great condition to ensure road user safety.
On the M1 recently, our client Ringway requested that we trial a new approach for grass cutting using a full road closure provided by our sister company Chevron Traffic Management.
The M1 is traditionally very difficult to get road space for, and usually this work would be undertaken by one team, over 19 shifts with corresponding traffic management requirements for every shift.
This trial involved just 4 shifts, with six teams out at once, making the most of a full road closure. Each team had 3 x vegetation management operatives, with tractor and flail or ride on flail mower and a strimmer support team to get to the intricate areas the tractors couldn't reach.
Along with three teams from our Fenstanton depot, we were also supported by teams from our trusted supply chain partners, Bear Valley Timber and JRH Contracting. Our Contract Supervisor James Curtis directed operations on the ground, providing supervision and guidance to all teams. Moving them into the next area when they'd completed their initial plots.
Of course, having this intense trial had a knock-on effect on the grass cutting programme for other routes, but luckily our clients across Ringway were happy to accommodate the changes in order to make the most of the trial.
There is a huge safety benefit to working this way, with multiple teams working inside the full closures. It had the added benefit of a massive cost saving on the traffic management requirements. The reduced time spent doing the grass cutting means that road users were also impacted far less than normal.
It was a successful trial, and one we hope to replicate across the network.
