A new screed vehicle has been ordered by Oxford City Council from Somerford Equipment to carry out road-lining work in the Oxford ring road area.
The order is part of a rolling replacement programme to update assets that have reached the end of their operational life and are no longer cost effective to keep on the road.
Oxford City Council's Fleet Technical Officer Owain Pearce said: 'We chose Somerford Equipment after researching all possible suppliers to ensure we got best value and worked closely with them to design a bespoke vehicle'
The new vehicle will allow the council to comply with the latest safety and workflow practices. It features a single point safe-fill system to ensure the highest levels of safety are maintained when topping up the on-board gas storage facility.
Also included are fully-electronic, rear-mounted LED traffic control lights to ensure workforce safety around the clock, a significant improvement on the previous vehicle that just had a warning sign at the back.
The vehicle is also fitted with an independent compressor with 110V generator. This will eliminate the need for Oxford City Council to use a separate trailer to carry additional equipment and enable maintenance teams to work more efficiently.
'This new vehicle will increase the productivity of our highways teams while reducing downtime and maintenance costs,' said Barrie Welford, Road Marking & Sign Shop Manager.
'It will enable us to complete jobs faster to keep traffic flowing across the city and ensure that the highways infrastructure is efficiently maintained'
The vehicle is also covered by Somerford Equipment's service and maintenance programme which includes full gas accreditation and certification.
