Traffic management plan
The plan for keeping vehicles and pedestrians apart on and around a site: routes, one-way systems, crossing points, speed limits, reversing controls, signage and the interface with the public highway.
Being struck by a moving vehicle is the second largest cause of death on UK construction sites, and CDM 2015 requires traffic routes to be organised so that pedestrians and vehicles can move safely and without risk. The traffic management plan is how the principal contractor does it: a drawing showing vehicle routes, pedestrian routes and where they cross; segregation by barriers, not paint, wherever plant and people share ground; one-way systems and turning areas to eliminate reversing, and banksmen or engineered controls where it cannot be eliminated; a site speed limit; delivery arrangements (timed, marshalled, with a holding area off the highway where possible); parking; lighting; signage at the gate and inside; and the interface with the public road, including any traffic management on the highway under Chapter 8 where the site affects it.
The plan is briefed at induction, enforced on site, and reviewed when the site layout changes, which it does constantly. Delivery drivers are the group most often hurt, because they are on an unfamiliar site outside the induction; a gate briefing and a marshal for every delivery is the control. Chapter 8 of the Traffic Signs Manual governs any works on or adjacent to the highway and is a discipline of its own, with trained and carded operatives.
Where it comes from
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 reg.27 (traffic routes) and reg.28 (vehicles).
- HSE guidance HSG144 (The safe use of vehicles on construction sites).
- Traffic Signs Manual Chapter 8 and the Safety at Street Works and Road Works Code of Practice for highway interfaces.
Questions people ask
Do I need a traffic management plan on a small site?
If vehicles and people share the site, yes, proportionate to it. On a small site it may be a marked-up drawing and three rules: where deliveries stop, where people walk, and no reversing without a banksman.
Who marshals deliveries?
A trained banksman or vehicle marshal appointed for the purpose, standing where the driver can see them, with everyone else clear. Not whoever is nearest.
Traffic management plan, handled on a phone
SiteLynx puts the RAMS, permits, inspections, audits, plant checks and records behind every term in this glossary on the crew's phones, signed on site, with a PDF at the end. 14 days free, no card.
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