Biffa West Sussex Ltd commissioned Berry Systems to install safety barriers at their flagship Mechanical Biological Treatment facility near Horsham. The facility was built as part of a 25-year contract with West Sussex County Council to reduce the amount of non-recycled ‘black bag’ household rubbish West Sussex sends to landfill. The facility is anticipated to process approximately seven million tonnes of waste over its lifetime.

Waste is delivered by HGVs so Berry Safety Barriers have been installed to protect people, plant and equipment in the event of any collisions or other impacts. Heavy section open box beam barriers were mounted on a variety of posts to suit the varying requirements of different locations.

The approach road is lined with barriers mounted on planted rigid posts concreted into the ground while the weighbridge is separated from pedestrian areas by barriers mounted on rigid posts bolted to the surface with integral pedestrian handrails and protective mesh.

In areas where there is insufficient room for a surface mounted barrier, Berry’s wall mounted WH spring steel buffers and Berry Beams have been installed. These mounting brackets not only save space but also ‘give’ a little on impact to spread the load, protect the wall from the full force of the collision and minimise damage to the wall, the barrier and the vehicle.

Where there is enough room behind the barrier to allow for deflection, Berry’s RB1X spring steel buffers have been installed to mount the open box beam barrier. This deflects on impact and spreads the impact forces between the barrier, the buffer, the vehicle and significantly reduces the pull out load on the anchor. This additionally protects the anchorage from damage and allows fixing with a single anchor bolt with obvious installation advantages.

In total over 800m of barriers were installed at the MBT facility which is now open and treating waste.