Over the last two years, a staggering 4.5 million working days were lost to workplace injuries. A fifth of these were caused by manual handling . One common activity which contributes to this, posing a high risk of manual handling injuries is the removal and replacement of heavy concrete and metal manhole and trench covers.
At the end of 2016, the UK government unveiled a record infrastructure spend pipeline of £500 billion-plus, £300m of which will be invested by 2020/21 . Composite materials play a growing role in this, with expected growth in the construction industry of 42-78% by 2020 (to £510-640m) and £1240-1520m by 2030 .
Over the next six years, £47.9 billion is set to be spent on the operation, maintenance and renewal of railways as part of a government initiative to become more focused on issues that matter most to passengers. The use of composites within the rail industry is predicted to grow by up to 40% (£100 million ) between 2015 and 2020 according to the Composites Leadership Forum.