A SAFETY barrier expert is to visit Fenland to provide a survey report and cost estimate for installing barriers on river roads. The visit is a major boost for Fenland Road Safety Campaign organiser Graham Chappell, who has recently announced fundraising

A SAFETY barrier expert is to visit Fenland to provide a survey report and cost estimate for installing barriers on river roads.

The visit is a major boost for Fenland Road Safety Campaign organiser Graham Chappell, who has recently announced fundraising plans to help fund the start of barrier installation.

Mr Chappell visited Karl Petters, co-director of Arbus, a Newmarket based barrier installation company. He said: "Karl Petters confirmed his confidence that progress could readily be made with any engineering challenges linked to barrier installation on Fen river roads."

Mr Chappell has also attended the 'Designing Safer Roadsides' annual conference at the Institution of Civil Engineers HQ in London at the invitation of the conference organiser Andy Pledge.

A former council road safety engineer, Mr Pledge is the founder of an organisation called 'The Passive Revolution' which promotes passive safety in the design and manufacture of street furniture such as lamp and sign posts, bridge parapets and safety barriers so that collision with the objects does not lead to serious injury or death.

Mr Chappell said: "Adoption of the passive safety approach by the highways agency has helped make UK motorways and trunk roads among the safest in the world but now needs translating to the local authority managed rural network to help improve safety here.

"The problem of deep water adjacent roads in the Fens has been embraced by Andy Pledge and the Passive Revolution Team as part of its drive for safer rural roadsides across the UK.

"It has begun the process of involving the major UK safety barrier manufacturers and suppliers in search for solutions to the engineering and financial challenges faced here. Word of the Fenland Road Safety Campaign organiser's mission is now spreading far and wide, and is attracting growing expert and industry support.