Note of meeting June 14 2024
with Joanna Hill of H W MARTIN (TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT) Ltd.
Joanna Hill is the Marketing and Comms Manager for HW Martin (Traffic Management) Ltd; we met last year at the Jobs and Apprentices Fair in Buxton. Since we all get stuck in traffic jams, but few of us ever think about how that work is managed, or the safety of the roadworkers we see, I thought her visit would enlighten us. And boy, her videos of life (and near death) on the front line had us gasping!
The business began in 1972 from Harold Martin’s home in Brinsley, Notts with a load of fencing and a small lorry; by 1979 they had a five-year fencing and ditching contract with the National Coal Board covering Notts, Derbys and other northern areas and worked with the NCB for the next two decades. H W Martin (Plant) Limited was formed in 1980 to service the plant and vehicle demands of the fencing operation and H W Martin Safety Fencing Limited in 1987 focussed on safety barriers on trunk roads and motorways. It was a natural progression to bring safety management itself inhouse, leading to H W Martin (Traffic Management) Limited in 1988. Somehow waste disposal got involved too. Now the Martin Group has 9 companies across 17 locations in the UK, with over 1,000 employees and group turnover of £247m, according to the most recent published accounts (for 2022).
Over half those employees work in the Traffic Management part of the business: it’s quite a labour-intensive activity. They operate across all transport sectors including rail; their 500 vehicles cover 4,500 miles of our road network – they don’t deal with all of the smaller roads which are typically the responsibility of local authorities, although this is an area of growth – but trunk and motorways, the “strategic road network.” That’s where you have seen them. The 11 UK depots are widely scattered; our nearest is Widnes, the biggest are in Kent. Despite having only a small team, Joanna is proud of their “customer-focussed” management. That’s part of her job.
One problem, said Joanna, is that 90% of the time they get called in late in the process of planning the construction job. That means they must “retrofit” their traffic management. Only a handful of projects involve them right from the beginning which makes everyone’s task a lot easier, as well as cheaper and safer. The effort and skills that go into planning a huge disruption, such as replacing a bridge or relaying a big junction, are extraordinary. Computer systems once created can control everything from ordering up equipment and materials to time sheets. And yet: “It’s a very traditional industry,” said Joanna tactfully.
HW Martin (Traffic Management) Ltd may also be called in for an emergency, or for sensitive events like lorries lined up on the M2 before entering Dover – in December 2020 the company created the entire contraflow for trucks heading for Eurostar and the ferries; the video showed how complex, and dangerous, such an operation in darkness and poor weather really was.
“Our customer is the road user,” Joanna explained. The client can be anybody, but typically National Highways, high speed rail, Balfour Beatty, Keir, Galliford Try and EKFB (Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial and BAM Nuttall, a joint venture involved in design, construction, operation, financing and maintenance of railway networks, including some of Europe’s largest high-speed rail projects). The aim is to provide “safe, trusted, agile, progressive and sustainable” services; at best, they can bring real management skills to bear resulting in higher speed limits, wider lanes and day and night working, all of which reduces the time of disruption and its cost.
Joanna was rightly proud that her team are award winners, most recently for their work on an 11-mile section of the M6 at junctions 5 – 8, which saw a 94% reduction in the proposed static works programme. This meant roadworks that were both shorter in length and shorter in duration, without lengthy diversion routes. All Lane Running (ALR) was maintained throughout and standard-width lanes were retained. Notably, the speed limit was fixed at 50mph during the day, a departure from the usual practice of night-time works for major projects.
“We can put out 10,000 cones out in a night,” she said, and then showed us a hair-raising video from a truck demonstrating how it’s done – all by hand, with workers in high-viz jackets leaning from the side of a moving truck inches from whizzing juggernauts. Why do it like that? Because that’s the still most effective way, though a large rotary machine is being trialled -but as it’s much wider, probably not suitable for UK motorways without closures. As one employee said on a training video, “I just feel like another cone.” The greatest hazard is that drivers can be unpredictable: “When it goes wrong, it goes badly wrong,” she said soberly.
There’s often confusion between workers responsible for fixing potholes (local councils) and those doing high-powered work on motorways (like HW Martin). One furious motorist in a petrol station saw the hi-viz jackets and came to the wrong conclusion – he pulled a gun on them. Abuse from irate drivers is sadly part of the job, with some deliberately crashing through barriers, or striding over to remove them; that’s an offence, and seriously dangerous, so now cameras are appearing on HW Martin (Traffic Management) worksites, though it’s taking time to make them standard. I reckon they need GoPros as standard issue on every helmet, as cyclists now do, so that any incident is instantly recorded and prosecution and deterrence may be more likely. But as she says, in a traditional industry, it takes time to make progress like this.
But in the end, despite all the millions of pounds-worth of vehicles, the computers and the cameras, “It’s almost like flying an aeroplane,” Joanna concluded, “No matter how much you automate, human skills are paramount.” We were left with admiration for this extraordinary industry, and a resolve to treat their activities with more respect in future.