The University of Manchester is the 600th organisation to commit to implementing the national CLOCS Standard on all their operations. Their £1bn Campus Masterplan is the largest capital programme in the institution’s history and one of the largest currently underway in the higher education sector.
Construction work is ongoing across a number of major developments, including the flagship £350m Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD), which will bring together the University’s four Schools of Engineering in one location and also provide teaching and office space for 4,000 people.
With this scale of development there is a substantial increase in construction vehicle movements and with that the serious risk of a collision. Having 50,000 staff and students on campus within our wider city centre community presents a major challenge in terms of engagement with the supply chain. Ensuring safe traffic routing within agreed Construction Logistics/ Traffic Management Plans and maintaining CLOCS standards through compliance checks at the site gate is critical.
Adopting the CLOCS standard is absolutely essential in helping the University to meet this challenge as the cost of not getting it right is incalculable in terms of losing a life and the devastation this would cause to everybody impacted by such a tragedy. The university is proud of its excellent reputation for social responsibility and championing CLOCS is in complete alignment with our charitable goals. A larger conversation is taking place in the HE sector and across Greater Manchester to make the roads safer for all, particularly as we are promoting greener travel options.
Martin Blake, Principal Estates & Facilities Health & Safety Manager at The University of Manchester, confirmed “We’re championing CLOCS as a CDM Client to drive up standards within the Higher Education sector which spends £4bn on construction annually, with all our construction partners working on our £1bn campus development and throughout our supply chain to ensure we take every reasonable action to protect our 50,000 campus community from harm. It’s not only sensible business; it’s simply the right thing to do. We urge every construction client to become a CLOCS Champion, read the CLOCS Client Procurement Guide, and implement CLOCS to prevent collisions, protect lives and make communities safer. As a University, educating people is our core business so we have been facilitating community engagement events such as ‘Sharing the road safely’ and supporting the CLOCS annual conference to raise awareness of road related risk from construction traffic and how embedding CLOCS in the procurement process is essential”.
