The Falcon ACLM automated cone laying machine is being deployed by Balfour Beatty’s Connect Plus Services’ consortium, which looks after the M25 for National Highways.
The new machine, built on a Scania low-entry L-series chassis, is designed to reduce the risks associated with cone laying activities in highways operations. It can deploy or collect a cone in under 10 seconds.
It has been developed by Kent-based Highway Care, with technology from Swiss firm Senn Engineering.
Balfour Beatty highways managing director Phil Clifton said: “We’re delighted to become the first construction company in the UK to successfully roll out these revolutionary new automated cone laying machines…We hope the machines will radically improve the lives of highways workers by reducing their direct exposure to a live road environment.”
Highway Care business development director Ben Duncker said: “We are very excited after three years of development in collaboration with National Highways and stakeholders such as Balfour Beatty and Connect Plus Services, to see the first production vehicles arriving on the M25 network. We now look forward to the machines making the desired impact and improving the health, safety and wellbeing of traffic management operatives.”
It has taken a long time to get to this point. It was back in February 2020 that National Highways first released footage of the Highway Care vehicle undergoing testing at the Bruntingthorpe proving ground in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. [See our previous report here.]
A second vehicle, developed by competitor King Highway Products, has also been trialled.
Watch operations and maintenance manager Robert Haddow discusses the Falcon ACLM in the video below.
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