A collaboration between Arrowes Roading Safety, Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway Upgrades – Burke to Tram Alliance, Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) and KPI Construction Services has potentially changed the face of construction in Australia.
The Australian-built Automated Cone Truck (ACT) has successfully completed a 12-month real-life implementation as part of Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway upgrades, in a move that has significantly enhanced safety outcomes for traffic controllers on Australia’s roads.
Roughly 100 traffic controllers are typically injured each year and require medical time off work. Tragically, at least one traffic controller is killed per year on average.
The ACT can deploy cones every seven seconds at intervals of 12-24 metres while travelling at speeds of up to 16 km/h.
Managing Director of KPI Construction Aaron Ramsay, which is delivering traffic management and planning services to the Eastern Freeway Upgrades project, says the ACT trial has improved worker safety, decreased likelihood of injury, and increased efficiency.
“The integration of the ACT has been a pivotal asset over the past year, deploying and collecting traffic cones on 188 occasions across 564 kilometres of lane closures,” Ramsay says.
“ACT placed and collected 65,000 cones, eliminating the need for over 1200 tonnes of manual handling and reducing worker exposure to live traffic by approximately 500 hours.
“We’ve been using the ACT every night for a year now, and we’ve had no incidents during this period. It’s a life-saving innovation which ensures our team return home to their families safe every day.”
The results of the 12-month trial of the ACT were revealed at the SmartRoad Safety Symposium on September 5.
It has also won the Victorian Major Transport Infrastructure Authority’s award for innovation and the Director General Award for Safety Innovations in 2022, and the National Safety Award in 2023.
It is also a finalist in the Moreton Bay City Council Business and Innovations Awards in 2024.
“We were committed to finding a commercially viable solution to reduce the risk of fatality and injury among traffic workers while also reducing manual handling and setup times,” Executive Director of Arrowes Lea Ea says.
“Research by Safe Work Australia found 63 per cent of fatalities on worksites were caused by being hit by moving vehicles.
“Road construction and maintenance workers are among the most likely to be involved in a workplace incident in Australia.
“Every life lost is one too many. The consequences are devastating, with estimates that each fatality results in a social cost of $7.8 million, not to mention the emotional toll on their loved ones.”
The ACT was initially trialled in 2021 as part of the M80 upgrade between Sydney Road and Edgars Road.
Safety Manager on the Eastern Freeway Upgrades Stuart Dangerfield says the designed has been refined since the initial trials three years ago.
“The safety of our people and the community is at the forefront of everything we do, so we were excited to be the first to trial the ACT three years ago,” Dangerfield says.
“Since this initial trial we’ve seen the innovation refined and improved, which has resulted in safer and efficient use of this technology on the Eastern Freeway Upgrade from Burke Road to Tram Road.
“We know manually deploying and collecting cones can expose our crews to some of the highest risk zones on a road worksite. Using the ACT on our Easter Freeway Upgrades has further reduced the need for workers to interact with live traffic conditions.”
The Eastern Freeway Upgrade project consists of a range of separate projects overseen as part of Victoria’s Big Build.
Included in the wider project is a dedicated busway, a connection to the new North East Link tunnels in Bulleen and upgraded noise walls.
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