Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Slips and trips
The Boulevard Project aims to bring to Camden the style, levels of cleanliness and feelings of safety and security that can be found in the best cities in Europe and North America. This ambitious street improvement programme is backed by a major capital investment of around £24 million. A significant aspect of the project is the improvement of the pavements within the borough. Cleaning was identified as a key aspect, with the introduction of continental style washing, rath er than simply sweeping.
The Boulevard Project has developed a special “Camden Slab” so that borough streets can withstand the continental cleansing regime the council has introduced. The pavement has to “withstand” the cleaning in two respects - the machines weigh up to two and a half tonnes and the cleaning water would quickly erode traditional slab bedding. The Camden Slab is fifty percent thicker than conventional paving, it is close jointed (no gaps between slabs) and the bedding is a mixture of sand and cement, rather than just sand. The paving is also laid to a much higher standard, a change that is reflected in new paving contracts, which place emphasis on quality rather than speed.
You may be wondering what this means for Slips and Trips? Well, in the three years up to the summer of 2000, when the Boulevard Project began, total claims on the first fourteen streets to be overhauled amounted to £367,496 for 152 trips or falls. In the period since each of these streets had a makeover, claims have dropped to zero. This is an impressive outcome, and one that financially justifies the improvement in quality of paving in the borough.
