Chapter 8 legislation

I've been asked to quote for installing festoon lighting on catenary wires over a road. Now the cunning plan is to work late at night / early hours of the morning off a mobile cherry picker, but clealry there needs to be some management of the general public on the footpaths and some traffic management. The road is a single lane, one way street in a quietish part fo town, so not heavy traffic during the night. Now I am planning warning signs at the entrance too the road , but not to close the road itself as we aren't digging holes or anything like that, but a quick read of Chapter 8 guidelines seems to show lots of advice on traffic management for roadworks, which is far in excess of what I need. So I'm not sure how far I need to go with Ch8 compliance, do I need it all?  I've been talking to a few people who seem to think the best advice is ignore it and do work out of hours - but I'm not keen on that approach. One good thing about this street is that it has wide pavements, so we don't need to block the road or stop any traffic very often.

Is the catenary already installed?

around here they put all the festoon in a large plastic 50 gal drum

put this on back of street lighting wagon

go up in basket whilst they hang on for dear life as their mate drives very slowly between lamp posts

festoons are already lamped up

HOWEVER there is some law or regulation that says you cannot put additional loads or fitments onto a lighting column if it has not been designed for the increased static and wind load

also check your PLI.....working on a live carriageway can be a bit tricky

you could park a big van with hazards on at start of road to slow traffic and have an official looking bloke in High Viz wafting a flashing light, just to be sure

Personally I’d talk to the police and the council.

They’ve helped me with the total opposite, they opened a closed road and allowed a wedding cortège to drive the wrong way on a one way street. (Towns annual carnival.)

most of the catenary is already in place, I've got a fella with a van mounted cherry picker lined up to help with the work, and the festton lighting is LED so already lamped, and I assume will turn up on a drum as it new.. I am planning warning signs at start of road, and wandering about with a hi-viz jacket on waving at any cars as necessary.

I am also trying to find something faster than standard cable ties to attach cabling to wires - you used to be able to get cable tie on a roll with a tensioning gun of some sort.

Don't think the Police would be very interested, but I am trying to avoid any potential hassles from council whist being defendably legal - the council outsource Ch8 to a bunch of rip-off merchants. As it happens I don't think any council workers will be around in the wee small hours to complain about anything  :innocent .  Any daytime works will be off the road, so will just need suitable barriers for the public on footpaths. Having seen what the council is doing itself whilst woking on public footpaths in my local park, I don't think I have too much to worry about.

I've also got to get lights into these trees - cherry picker will do some of it, ladders some more, but then I think I'm a bit stuffed. Anyone else ever done a job like this and how?

https://goo.gl/maps/CqbuALmenCq

if your on a carriageway then cpater 8 has some layout plans for various situations of what signage is required, but basically some roadworks ahead, road narrows left / right, keep right / left arrows and a few cones and youre usually OK, especially temporary stuff like that. for the footpath you need barriers and a pedestians left / right sign etc

if you are going to be stopping any traffic then you should also have a sign warning of temporary traffic control and a lollypop sign with 'stop works' on

You need to speak to the local council highways department. The slightest wiff of doing something wrong and they will land you with a £5k fine per individual.

Sounds like you will need authority for mobile works which are easy enough to set up, they normally allow these between 09:30 and 15:00, this allows you to work in daylight.

As you're working at height you will also need to think about a drop zone that's barriered off to prevent access by the general public. Even a stone dropping from a boot and hitting someone is grounds for a very big claim against you. Insurance will pay out but they will normally try and recoup this loss from you directly.

Don't try and 'get away with it', many have tried in the past and failed miserably.

I have to say I concur with Sid here, a chat with council highways is surely the correct thing to do here, it’s ok saying that you’re not on the road long etc, but it only takes a split second for an accident to happen. 

Best to cover yourself with the correct authorities and be sure to check any insurances you have to make sure you are insured. Working on a roof at height is a different ball game to working over a carriageway at height. 

@binky Have you got a street works/NRSWA ticket? Because you will need a qualified person on site while you’re doing the work. 

I haven't but the company with the cherry picker apparently has.I will be double checking all tickets before starting works.

And  without double checking ....catenary over roadways  need to be at  5 mtrs  .  

Must admit we did one in  an industrial  Birmingham back street between two halves of a factory   ....Sunday morning ...no probs  .    used a basic tower to hang an SWA  on A catenary  .     We did some checking about power cables across streets  and there was no problem .  

most of the installation over the road is already in place,  we need to add 1 wire and test existing hangar bolts. I've been looking at courses for signage Ch8 part 2 , 1 day £178 + VAT, seems daft not to do it.

I've got my NRASWA Part 2 and it is handy to have, although I don't do any lighting or guarding it gives me the base knowledge to cover myself when doing streetworks, even down to minimum distances to allow people to pass, toe boards for visually impaired etc.

This line of work may expand so getting a ticket may be useful.