Let’s face it, when a road crew requires protection, lighting and material transport and they’re working on a project over a six-week period, do they really need to purchase three separate fleets to accomplish the job?
This wouldn’t be done by many people today, and you will see the reasons for this when you learn how the rental mode really works.
This guide goes through what road construction safety vehicle hire consists of in the UAE, the importance it has that many people do not consider and how to determine the right fleet to use for the job in front of you.
What Is Considered a “Safety Vehicle” on a Road Project?
It seems as though it is a pretty good amount of equipment to cover, but it really is quite limited.
A full safety vehicle array should consist of shadow vehicles with truck mounted attenuators, towable light towers for night-time operations, and crew and service vehicles to transport materials and personnel around the site.
They are all different and each answers a different problem.
All of these are essential after grasping what would happen if they were missing.
Shadow Vehicles: The Unsung Heroes of Lane Closures
Use shadow vehicles, as they do more heavy lifting than most people realize.
Shadow vehicles are essentially a heavy truck, often equipped with a crash attenuator, that is used to intercept traffic ahead of a work crew.
Upstream of road operations, shadow vehicles and truck-mounted attenuators are used to keep all work crews on foot safe from an intruding vehicle entering the work zone and also to help minimize the impact of an intruding vehicle on its occupants if it does hit work equipment.
The second part is as important as the first part.
A good shadow vehicle set up protects everyone involved in the activity, not the crew.
Here, the mass becomes a significant factor, and it’s where the engineering gets the real juice.
In roads with a considerable amount of high speed truck traffic, agencies and contractors are better protected by shadow vehicles of at least 50,000 pounds, such as a sand loaded dump truck equipped with a TMA.
A light pickup certainly won’t sustain the impact of a fully loaded truck the same way that a heavier shadow vehicle will.
Positioning Isn’t Guesswork, It’s a Formula
This is something most people in the industry likely don’t think about:
Where you position the shadow vehicle with respect to the crew is not a judgment call.
Works from a documented procedure.
The shadow vehicle must be far enough ahead of the work operation that the impacting vehicle will not be pushed into the work crew.
The spacing distances are actually variable according to task.
Normally, paint-striping operations require a greater spacing, and some other operations require a spacing as short as 30 feet.
There is even a known mass-matching rule for jobs that involve a series of shadow vehicles.
The weight of each shadow vehicle should be within about 5% of the rest of the convoy, and the order of the vehicles using a TMA should be based on the appropriate traffic speed at that vehicle’s location.
All this is not random.
It is a component of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and other roadside design information developed by the FHWA using decades of actual crash data.
On UAE high speed roads on Sheikh Zayed Road, Emirates Road, or other high speed roads, that spacing/mass logic is direct.
More vehicles and increased speeds means bigger and heavier shadow vehicles and buffer distances, period.
By the End of the Day, When the Sun Sets, UAE Roadwork Goes On, and So Do Light Towers
Much of the work on UAE roads is done at night, either to minimize traffic during the daylight hours, or because working on the roads during the summer day is quite grueling.
This translates to lighting equipment being a must have, not a nice to have.
Conveying infrastructure for the entire operation.
Towable light towers are portable, high-intensity lights designed for road construction or similar locations, usually covering 5 to 7 acres depending on the height of the mast, lamp type, and placement of the light tower.
Modern units are becoming more flexible with power options as well.
Some towable light towers offer a selection between 4000-watt metal halide or 1200-watt LED, to enable contractors to vary between brightness and fuel efficiency as per the job.
If there is no suitable illumination, all other measures on site quickly become ineffective.
Shadow vehicles are much less useful if the driver is unable to see it until headlights are almost overhead.
Crew and Service Trucks: Not as Glamorous, but Just as Essential
No one is going to tell their employees to write marketing copy about crew trucks, but how fast will things slow down without them on a road project?
Tools and personnel are transported to and from larger job sites via crew and service trucks to prevent equipment from going idle and crews from having to lift and move materials by hand.
This is much more important on UAE projects located on long stretches of highway.
A team that needs to walk equipment back and forth a kilometre on an active roadway is unnecessarily losing time and risking traffic.
A dedicated service truck addresses both these problems.
Why Renting Beats Owning for Most UAE Contractors
Having an entire fleet, a shadow truck, light towers and service vehicles does sound good until you sit down and work out the price of storing, insuring and maintaining equipment that sits idle between contracts.
Contractors can benefit from construction vehicle rental by being able to get the trucks they need for ongoing work without having to invest in buying them, which means that they do not have to deal with the expense of depreciating the trucks, maintaining them, or storing them.
If you’re a UAE contractor who has multiple projects on the go across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, that flexibility is more important than ownership pride.
Rent the exact mass class of shadow vehicle a specific highway speed requires, add additional light towers for the night shift and add or remove crew trucks as needed by project time.
Selecting the Appropriate Fleet for Particular Jobsites and Projects
Not all jobs require the heaviest of shadow vehicles or the brightest of the light towers on the lot.
The equipment has to be matched to the work; it’s as important as having the equipment present.
In the case of high-speed highway work, make sure it’s a heavier shadow vehicle equipped with the correct TMAs, and ensure the rental company can provide you with clear information on spacing and mass.
If you are working overnight, ensure there is enough light coverage for the job – just because you don’t need to pay a small rental fee doesn’t mean you should risk having a part of the area without light coverage because that is the exact type of incident this whole fleet exists to avoid.
On sprawling job sites, consider having sufficient crew trucks so that nobody suffers from wasted daylight or from unnecessary walking around the job site.
If the rental company asks for your road type, traffic speed and shift time before they quote you anything, it is more likely to be trusted than a rental company that simply sends you a price sheet.
The Bottom Line on Road Construction Safety Vehicle Rental UAE
Road construction safety vehicle rental in UAE is not just about simply renting a truck and that’s it.
It’s all about having the right mix of shadow vehicles, the right lighting, the right support trucks, and the right size, measuring the road speed and project length, and not tying up capital in equipment that sits idle for half the year.
You can achieve this by getting the mass, spacing and lighting correct, and create a work zone that is actually protecting the people within it, not just in appearance.