WREKIN PRODUCTS, one of the leading designers and manufacturers of access covers for the civil engineering industry, has voiced its support on changes to the national Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) technical regulation for chamber tops and gully tops that will give UK infrastructure added safety and longevity.
Issued by National Highways as part of its UK road network governance, CD 534 was first published in February in 2020, and has recently been updated to v0.1.0. The update will be mandatory for all new chamber tops and gully tops – often called to as manhole covers and gully grates – installed or reinstalled moving forwards.
Barry Turner, technical manager at Wrekin, said: “As a business with a rich history in the design and manufacture of ironwork for roads in the UK, we’re encouraged and pleased by the changes made by National Highways in order to create safer and longer lasting infrastructure.
“HA104/09, the predecessor to CD 534, was only an advisory document due to conflicting information with the national standard for ironwork (BS EN 124), so it’s great to see the necessary tweaks made to CD 534 to allow it to become law. This most recent update continues the move towards higher standards across our industry.
“The covers available in our Highway and Unite ranges are already designed in a way that satisfy the newly-revised regulation – meaning that our customers can rest assured that specifying one of our Unite or Highway access covers will allow them to comply with the new requirements.”
Some of the key changes to CD 534 include specifying a minimum frame flange area, a lower limit of frame mass and clarifying the type of skid resistance test for covers with pronounced raised chequer. These adjustments have been made in order to improve installation service life, increase road user safety and to provide detailed guidance for manufactures.
Barry continued: “Importantly, due to CD 534’s revision process diligently taking account of respected industry stakeholders views, we were delighted to see that our opinions have been echoed as fundamental changes in the newly revised regulation, in particular, the recognition of a minimum frame flange area requirement”.
For more detail on the changes, visit Wrekin’s website here
