Major incidents:
The engineering assessment

The next step is to carry out a full appraisal of the situation. This is the engineering assessment.

Amongst the things to consider in the engineering assessment, but not necessarily in this order, are:

Do we need sand on the carriageway?
Yes, the absorbent granules have now been blown off the running surface and vehicles are tracking the paint further up the road. Contact the Term Maintenance Contractor Supervisor/Agent for a gritting vehicle and sand to attend the scene as soon as possible, and arrange for Police escort if necessary.
Are gullies contaminated?
Yes. The Incident Support Unit have provided dams, but the gullies are full of paint. A gully emptier is required, so contact the Term Maintenance Contractor Supervisor/Agent.
Are drainage pipelines contaminated?
Yes. Get "stoppers" to the site to block off and prevent further contamination of pipelines and prevent paint reaching watercourses. Contact Term Maintenance Contractor Supervisor/Agent for this. Arrange for the Incident Support Unit to close sluice gates to and from balance ponds/interceptors to prevent further contamination. If unsure of the layout of the drainage system, contact the office to check "as-built" drawings to ascertain the drainage layout. If pipelines are down a large embankment or verge, a larger machine than a gully emptier will be required that can both reach the pipeline and remove the material; contact Term Maintenance Contractor Supervisor/Agent again for this.
Is it gloss paint or is it emulsion paint?
If it's emulsion paint, it's far easier to deal with. Jet washing is required at the earliest opportunity, ensuring that the water is contained and removed at the same time by gully emptiers or mechanical sweepers. Contact Term Maintenance Contractor Supervisor/Agent for these. This material has to be tipped at a specialised plant as it's contaminated waste, arrangements must be made to accept this waste. If it's gloss paint, then it is far harder on a surface area of this size. You cannot use white spirits like you would with a paintbrush as this would give skid resistance problems and could damage the surfacing. It is already obvious that the surfacing is going to be replaced, but you need to get the paint off the carriageway, so mechanical sweepers are required - the more of these the better. Contact Term Maintenance Contractor Supervisor/Agent again, and update the Police.
What protective measures are needed to the highway?
If water jetting is being carried out, you may need to have tarpaulins on site to protect the French drain from being further contaminated; similarly for verges where protected species may be. Assuming that the carriageway can be reopened between recovery of the vehicle and resurfacing commencing, "no road markings" signs are to be erected, matrix signs are to be used to advise reduced speed, and consider keeping a lane closed to slow traffic, thereby making it safer for all (the last two must be in conjunction with the Police).
What are we going to do with the trapped traffic?
Arrange with the Police to reopen additional lanes if appropriate, stop traffic on the opposite carriageway, and for the Incident Support Unit to cut a 15 metre gap in the central reserve safety fence. Trapped traffic can be released through this gap if it cannot get past the scene due to the overturned vehicle.
How long before closures and diversions are out?
Get constant updates from Term Maintenance Contractor Supervisor/Agent, crews, Network Control Centre and emergency services. Redeploy some staff to the scene once closures and diversions are established. Can the diversion route be put out in reverse due to delays, and if not, obtain Police assistance to get a signing van through the queuing traffic.
Suspend other works on the network, and redeploy staff to this scene.
Liase with Term Maintenance Contractor Supervisor/Agent, as this is having a massive impact on the network. Remove all other closures if the state of the sites permit this, and redeploy staff to this scene if required. Notify the Police.
How is the vehicle going to be recovered?
Liase with the Police and recovery personnel as to how and when the vehicle is going to be removed. A full assessment of the carriageway and subsequent resurfacing cannot begin until the vehicle has been removed. Arrange with Term Maintenance Contractor Supervisor/Agent to provide further lane closures on opposite carriageway for this if required.
How long is this going to go on for?
Ascertain how long before recovery will be completed, then add this to the time for resurfacing. Notify the Police.
Can we reopen additional lanes?
Assess the scene, and following discussions with Police, reopen lanes. The final decision is with the Client Supervisor, not the Police, since although this is a Police emergency closure, it is his duty to declare the highway safe to run.
Will resurfacing be required?
Is it just wearing course required, or has the overturned lorry meant that base course works are required? Contact Term Maintenance Contractor's Surfacing Supervisor/Agent with quantities, ascertain the ETA, and arrange for night-time Supervision on site (this could be the same Supervisor that has been working from 7.30am that day). Notify all of the timings. The Police are to issue a "Roadtraf" to advise motorists of present problems and timings of planned closures overnight.
How readily available is a surfacing crew?
They will be available. This is a major route; whatever else they were planning to do that night will have to wait. There will be contractual implications but the stand-down time etc is passed on to the insurer of the vehicle in the RTA.
Have the Environment Agency been notified?
Notify the EA, give them a full update of where it is, what has happened, what preventative measures have been taken so far, and ask for any advice for further measures they would recommend. They will send a representative to site to advise further.
Give Client office full update.
All the above are in turn notified to the Client Supervisors office who in turn notify HA and the clients Communications Team. Updates are given to the office as and when things change, but usually every half hour or so unless something dramatic changes. The Communications Team will contact numerous "stakeholders", such as local authorities whose roads are being used for the diversion, and local airports or large venues that may be affected by the road closure. That way they can forewarn there customers, and advise giving it a wide berth.
Cancel any planned site visits/meetings.
Contact others that you may have planned site visits/meeting with, and cancel!

Because of the litigious society we live in today, when on site, all involved keep logs of events, all decisions are made in conjunction with each other, all options are considered, reasons have to be logged as to why a decision was made, and also, why the other options were discounted.