T I T L E S P O N S O R
Adding value and solving
problems with traffic
control solutions
By Jill Harris, Lester Communications Inc.
The theme for ARHCA’s upcoming summit in Banff
is Driving Improvement: The Road Ahead in 2021.
It’s fitting that ARHCA member Barricades and
Signs immediately signed up as the event’s title sponsor,
as the Edmonton-based company has been charting a
path to improve road safety in Alberta by providing traffic
control solutions to the province’s transportation and
construction sectors.
Jan van Bruggen, the CEO and owner of Barricades and
Signs, says that one of the ways the company is making
roads safer is through technology, in particular portable
temporary traffic signals.
“There is an increasing number of fatalities with flaggers
on the roadways,” said van Bruggen. “Essentially, these
portable traffic signals displace flaggers on the highway.
They’re controlled by a trained traffic technician, with the
device set up on the road and the technician off to the side.”
Barricades and Signs works with a company in Ontario
called North America Traffic to develop, distribute and
rent equipment in Western Canada. According to van
Bruggen, provinces and municipalities are starting to
adopt these portable traffic signals as a requirement for
construction sites.
“Flagging devices or temporary signals should be used
as a default and only in unique circumstances should a
person be involved in traffic control directly on the road,”
he said. “Instead of the old convention of flagger first and
sometimes using equipment, we’ve flipped that to using
equipment first.”
Barricades and Signs is also a distributor of roadside
safety hardware – guard rails, crash cushions, temporary
crash systems and movable barriers – putting equipment on
the road to help people navigate through construction or
existing hazards on a roadway.
ALBERTA HEAVY Quarter 4 2020 27