abandoned traffic cones/portable road signs.

[JDOliver]

Hi,I would be grateful if anyone could tell me who to contact regarding abandoned cones/road signs.I live in Rossendale in Lancs,and we've had a lot of road works and improvement done especially on the A56/M66/M65 link.There are a lot of cones/road work signs/diversion signs that have been left.Is it the responsibility of the highways dept,the contractor or the local waste collection dept i.e.the council.Any answers would be gratefully received,thanks.JDOliver.

[Glen]

They should be collected by whoever set them up.
Assuming the work is complete and they haven't been left for any further work then they should be removed.

If the signs belong to a traffic management company or utility contractor there will usually be a name and often a phone number on the back of them.

Failing that, contact the local authority that is responsible for the road, or Highways England if it is a trunk road.

[J--M--B]

Hi,I would be grateful if anyone could tell me who to contact regarding abandoned cones/road signs.I live in Rossendale in Lancs,and we've had a lot of road works and improvement done especially on the A56/M66/M65 link.There are a lot of cones/road work signs/diversion signs that have been left.Is it the responsibility of the highways dept,the contractor or the local waste collection dept i.e.the council.Any answers would be gratefully received,thanks.JDOliver.

A few prosecutions for litter might concentrate minds and get them to clear up their stuff after a job.

[michael769]

If it's the odd random sign or conelying about - it's often down to vandals stealing them from sites and then abandoning them. The traffic management company or contractor is likely to be greatful to be told where they ended up. If they don;t the should be reported as with any fly tipping incident.

If it's obvious that they were left by contractors the highways dept should be informed, in many areas contractors get fined for no clearing up their sites.

[Truvelo]

At the M180 awayday a few months ago there were some items abandoned in the undergrowth. I took the conelite home and I couldn't get it working, even wiring the bulb to a power supply didn't work. I wonder if there's some naughty contractors who simply dump non-working or broken equipment at the site and only take the working stuff with them?

[Lamp&SignCollector]

At the M180 awayday a few months ago there were some items abandoned in the undergrowth. I took the conelite home and I couldn't get it working, even wiring the bulb to a power supply didn't work. I wonder if there's some naughty contractors who simply dump non-working or broken equipment at the site and only take the working stuff with them?

Wow I came across this photo and I was amazed! Glad you got the conelite! Did you ever get it working? If not I can supply you with a new circuit if you need?
Also are then cones still there?They are called Rubbatex cones and I have been after one for years, I would buy that if I could.

[Lamp&SignCollector]

Hi,I would be grateful if anyone could tell me who to contact regarding abandoned cones/road signs.I live in Rossendale in Lancs,and we've had a lot of road works and improvement done especially on the A56/M66/M65 link.There are a lot of cones/road work signs/diversion signs that have been left.Is it the responsibility of the highways dept,the contractor or the local waste collection dept i.e.the council.Any answers would be gratefully received,thanks.JDOliver.

The signs are probably gone now but if you ever experience this again, the best people to contact are the council.
Some products are branded (Cones usually on the base or lower body near the base) and signs are usually branded on the back so they should come and collect.

I had a similar issue with Tarmac, they left a Road Works and a Ramp sign, I called them on their free contact number, they said we will collect within 5 days. 3 Months passed and they were still there so I just took them, they look great on my wall now!

I wouldn't recommend taking them but these were at the side of my old house shoved behind a green BT box and nobody bothered to take them so I did.

I know Amberon used to have a webpage to report left over signage/cones, as did National Grid. You could call them or fill out a form telling them where the items are and they collect.

[chglm]

Must admit I've acquired a few that have been "abandoned"; I'm probably doing my bit for the environment! I'd never steal any from roadworks or any that have obviously been removed from nearby works but where I live theres always the occasional one chucked in a hedge, floating in the canal, or the odd ditch with weeds growing out of it!

The amount of roadworks furniture see on your travels along railway lines on embankments, under bridges, chucked in streams, hedges, on housing estates etc makes you wonder the total amount of lost/unclaimed equipment abandoned throughout the UK. Must run into millions of pounds!

[RichardA626]

I remember when my Brother was a student it was common to take these from roadworks & dump them in somebody's garden.

One of the houses where my Brother lived had a stack of cones & a keep left bollard (one of the heavy sheet metal ones!) in the back yard.

[KeithW]

At the M180 awayday a few months ago there were some items abandoned in the undergrowth. I took the conelite home and I couldn't get it working, even wiring the bulb to a power supply didn't work. I wonder if there's some naughty contractors who simply dump non-working or broken equipment at the site and only take the working stuff with them?

When you have people working in the field in any part of the construction game the supervisor should always take a wander around the 'cleared' work site. It's amazing how much stuff I found left behind at various locations ranging from warning signs up to and including a portable gen set, They usually get nicked off the work site unless you take the appropriate precautions. The worst I found left behind was a small dumper truck but there was an infamous occasion (not on my watch) when an industrial radiographer left a shuttered radioactive source on site. That caused the brown stuff to hit the fan big time. Everybody from Special Branch (this was a piping job at Earls Court) through to the HSE tramped through that one. Luckily it was found in the night watchmans office.

[Truvelo]

At the M180 awayday a few months ago there were some items abandoned in the undergrowth. I took the conelite home and I couldn't get it working, even wiring the bulb to a power supply didn't work. I wonder if there's some naughty contractors who simply dump non-working or broken equipment at the site and only take the working stuff with them?

Wow I came across this photo and I was amazed! Glad you got the conelite! Did you ever get it working? If not I can supply you with a new circuit if you need?

I couldn't fix it. I dismantled everything, including connecting the LED directly to a 3v supply but nothing happened.

[multiraider2]

I have mentioned this some years ago, but on the acquisition of my current house, the shed contained a worded road sign re pedestrians switching to the other side of the road. I assume it had been tidied away by the former owner and not drunkenly taken by her or her family.

It did remain in the shed for some years, but when nearby roadworks finished I stacked it with some others awaiting pickup. I guess that was actually minor fly-tiping by me, but it was duly collected and I hope that my intention came to fruition in that it was put to some future use or if not sent for scrap metal.

[Reading]

I must admit when me and my siblings were about 10 an entire set of cones, signes and old paraffin lamps were left sat in a hedge near our "camp" when a set of roadworks were dismantled, after a week or 2 we liberated them for our camp. The next spring on a boring Sunday we decided to set them up again around a big pothole my brother had crashed his bike in. They sat there for nearly a month but then workmen turned up filled the pothole and left with the gear (less 2 lanterns we kept)

[RichardA626]

I remember those yellow paraffin lanterns used to be common around roadworks until the early 1990s.

Occasionally I saw ones that had been run over & squashed flat.

[phil gollin]

I remember those yellow paraffin lanterns used to be common around roadworks until the early 1990s. .....

Youngster !

I remember when they were red (and when they were hung on red and white painted wooden poles supported by metal tripods/bipods).

.

[RichardA626]

I remember those yellow paraffin lanterns used to be common around roadworks until the early 1990s. .....

Youngster !

I remember when they were red (and when they were hung on red and white painted wooden poles supported by metal tripods/bipods).

.

I've seen some red ones at a museum.

[chglm]

Both red and yellow lamps you can still pick up on ebay. Mind you I have seen people trying to knock them out up to £100!
Im 45 and can remember both. More yellow than red. I guess regulations changed in the 1970's and red was phased out. Last contractor I remember using them was the electricity board in the early 80's

I've got few kicking about, one on my garden patio. Main manufacturers were BAT, Kenyon and Chalywyn . Some had initials engraved on the body to show who the belonged to if they went adrift. Things like CBC, chelt borough council, MEB, midlands electricity board, Murphy, BR etc.

Obviously technology has moved on now, naked flames and paraffin are def outlawed! I've got an old roadworks book somewhere where it states, danger lamps should be lit in a place of safety, not in works van!

living along a main road between two pubs I always had a collection of various lamps, signs and cones that would often fly on saturday nights and end up on the front lawn!!

[chglm]

The cones on your pic look ancient. Sorry bit of an anorak but havent seen any like that for ages! Might be wrong as cant tell 100% from pic but they look 1970's pre plastic! They must have been dumped there for yonks! They were made of a really solid black rubber with a plastic sheaf that fitted over the whole cone giving the red and white reflective part. When I was a kid I'd see loads dumped like that; mainly black with the reflective sleeve gone!

[Chris Bertram]

... a plastic sheaf ...

Sheath. A sheaf is what you get when you bundle wheat or barley up for sale or transportation.

[chglm]

[sheath. A sheaf is what you get when you bundle wheat or barley up for sale or transportation)

Yes- but you get rubber types aswell! Thats what I meant.