OPERATIONS
O
the Mine Health and Safety Act 29 of
1996 (MHSA) but is an extremely useful
management tool on any surface mining
operation. Although the task initially
appears to be daunting and extremely
difficult to implement, a bit of thought
and a commitment to the safety of the
individual site makes this seemingly
difficult task relatively easy to complete.
The traffic management plan is a living
plan and needs to be continually reviewed
and updated as operational requirements
ne of the most urgent safety
matters facing miners today is
that of traffic management. In this
regard, a lot of work has recently been
undertaken by member company, Lafarge
Mining South Africa’s Anthony Bowen,
who is the aggregates quarry manager for
the company’s Karino Quarry in Nelspruit,
South Africa.
The task of implementing a fully
functional traffic management plan is
not only a legal requirement in terms of
A traffic management plan regulates and controls the vehicular and pedestrian traffic
on site with the aim of eliminating interaction between vehicles and pedestrians as
well as limiting the vehicle-to-vehicle interaction.
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APRIL 2020
and site conditions change. The successful
implementation of a traffic management
plan requires time, effort, limited
machine use, common sense and a lot of
commitment by management.
Plan to regulate and control traffic
For the purposes of this article a real-
life case study is used and the positive
and negative aspects of the plan will
be highlighted. The operation is a
medium-size hard rock quarry producing
approximately 300 000 tons of aggregate
per annum (tpa). Traffic management is
an all-encompassing plan which has to
regulate and control the vehicular and
pedestrian traffic on site with the aim of
eliminating interaction between vehicles
and pedestrians as well as limiting the
vehicle-to-vehicle interaction.
“The process was started by doing a
comprehensive risk assessment in order
to comply with the MHSA, and secondly
to identify the various areas where
significant risk was identified. This process
cannot be overemphasised as it is the key
to the successful implementation of the
plan. It is of utmost importance to ensure
that in depth consultations are done
with the staff and that an environment is
created where all participants are able to
freely express their opinions and concerns
about traffic management. The success or
failure of the plan will depend on the ‘buy
in’ by people who are involved in the day-
to-day operations on site.
Lack of money no excuse
One of the challenges raised by site
management is the lack of resources and
a common response is “we don’t have the
money to do this”. While this may be a valid
issue, the case study revealed that this was
not a major obstacle in the implementation
of the plan. The material that was used was
sourced from waste material and other
available sources which most quarries have
access to. The use of overburden for the
separation berms will give the operation
an added benefit in that it will be available
for rehabilitation once the operations reach
closure. The use of a front-end loader for
limited periods daily enabled the berms
to be installed with relative ease and at
a very low cost. This did not impact on
the production and shipping functions of
the operation and was only done in quiet
periods or after hours.
It was important for the planners
to observe the operators and where
possible to accompany them while they
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