29 March 2024 The Irish Film & Television Network
     
CHM Group, Experts in Traffic Management, Expand Operations in Film and TV Productions
04 Apr 2013 : By Kevin Cronin
As the biggest company of its kind in the country, the CHM Group prides itself on providing a range of traffic management services to ensure that film and TV productions are safeguarded by trained professionals with the ability to handle unforeseen circumstances.

Co-owned by directors Niall Hughes and Barry Ennis, the CHM Group has gone from strength to strength since it was founded 13 years ago and operates an emergency call-out service within Leinster for the Irish film and TV industry - with plans to expand this across the country.

Mr Hughes spoke to IFTN and explained how effective traffic management for film and TV productions now requires that trained professionals assume responsibility for this task, as dictated by recently-introduced legislation.

‘Prior to the last two years, it was very easy to just close a road, get permission and nobody gave it a huge amount of consideration. Now there is new legislation in place which requires anyone closing a roadway has to be specifically trained and it’s been policed very carefully since,’ he said.

Mr Hughes highlighted two fatalities that occurred in the last six months of people engaged in traffic management as proof of the very real risks they encounter on a regular basis.

‘Despite the fact you’re there to stop traffic, people will still try and get around it. If someone ends up in the middle of a film production, it can create absolute havoc.’

Standard practice for the CHM Group involves submitting a formal traffic management plan to the relevant local authority, conscious of their requirements, before sitting down with the engineer and ensuring that all relevant parties are happy with the arrangement.

The size of the crew would vary depending on the nature of the production, with anything from two to six trained personnel assigned to the filming location.

Options range from a straightforward stop-and-go system, involving two people, to an expanded crew when there are other factors to be taken into account like the presence of a junction in the middle of the road. Extra staff members are also needed to cover breaks if film work continues for longer than a 12 hour shift.

‘The critical thing about all traffic management is just planning and making people aware of it. We not only notify the local authority, but also the AA and the police. What you have to keep in the back of your mind is you have to make immediate provision for emergency vehicles. Productions can run smoothly until an ambulance or fire brigade arrives. You have to plan for that and make sure that they get through,’ he said.

Mr Hughes explained that the CHM Group offers other services for the preparation of filming locations such as vegetation removal, weeding, tree cutting, hedge cutting, graffiti removal and other groundwork requiring its manual labour force.

Based in Walkinstown with a base in Tullamore, the CHM Group is currently at the forefront of the training of traffic management personnel – having written, designed and delivered most of the training in this area across the country.

‘We have delivered all the training to over 1,200 engineers in local authorities in how to design traffic management and we provide the software for it. We have a good working relationship with the local authorities and so have an understanding of what their requirements are,’ Mr Hughes said.

The CHM Group currently provides an emergency call-out service to all the local authorities in the Leinster region - which is also available to the Irish film and TV industry - and there are plans for this to be expanded to Galway.

‘If something goes wrong on a site, we have immediate availability of a managed workforce of 40 personnel for those unforeseen events that tend to arise when least expected. We have guys on standby 24-7, 365 days a year,’ Mr Hughes added.

Further information on traffic management by the CHM Group can be found at: www.chmltd.ie



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