Sign installer calls for tougher signs
23rd January 2007
Sign installation and maintenance specialist Xmo Strata is calling for sign manufacturers to make signs more robust in the wake of a two month spell of abnormally high winds – and warnings that global warming may make the situation worse.
Steve Martin, the company’s Managing Director, says his specially trained crews were answering nearly 80 emergency calls a day at the height of the January storms.
“The higher and more exposed a sign is, the more likely it is to suffer wind damage,” he said. “Forecourt canopy signs on petrol stations are particularly vulnerable, for example. Once the corner of a canopy sign has been damaged, it becomes a pretty urgent issue, because the wind will get right inside the canopy, and could destroy the entire structure. But any signs in exposed positions can be dangerous if they suffer wind damage.”
Depending on the circumstances, sign components – once detached from the sign – could travel through the air at “pretty much the speed of the wind”, and were potentially fatal, said Mr Martin.
Mr Martin also urged companies to avoid attempting to repair damaged signs themselves. “People should not be working at height – that means, even on a step ladder – in winds of more than 24 miles an hour,” he said.
“Our crews were reporting that on arrival at some sites, they found the manager up a step ladder vainly trying to hold a flapping sign component in place in winds of around 90 miles an hour – and the component could weigh anything up to quarter of a tonne. You have to admire their commitment, but it is a highly dangerous thing to do, and fairly pointless - no one is going to be able to prevent damage with their bare hands when you have a combination of heavy, sail-like components and storm-force winds.”
He also said that in future, the vulnerability of any specific sign to wind damage should be a part of the routine risk assessment when the sign is designed, and when components are specified. “Specifying standard components, for all sites, regardless of location, is no longer ‘on’, really,” he said. “Some sites are clearly exposed and vulnerable, others are in more sheltered locations. The industry has to get a bit ‘savvier’ at this.”
The company has a nationwide network of crews but many have been ‘following the weather’ through November, December and January, as the Kent-based control room deployed them into the worst-hit areas. By Christmas, the Scottish, Welsh, Northern, Midlands and South West regions had all been ‘reinforced’ at different times by colleagues from other regions; mid January’s storms saw crews from other parts of the UK rushing to reinforce colleagues along the South Coast and South Downs.
“Global warming is obviously here to stay, and for our own safety, we need to start adapting the world around us to meet these new and less certain conditions,” said Mr Martin. “Signs which appear to be strong and even over-engineered on a still, bright, summer’s day can tear, shred and shatter in storm force winds, and more alarmingly, the damaged components can turn into efficient killing machines. This year, nature has delivered a warning, in my view, and we’d better heed it.”