A giant magnet attached to a new mechanical road sweeper is helping to keep major roads in England's south east safe by collecting metal which has fallen from vehicles. More than three tonnes of metal has been collected from the M4, M3 and A34 in Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire over the past eighteen months.

Nails, spanners, wheel nuts, scaffold clips and money has been retrieved by the magnet, the equivalent weight of two cars. The road sweeper has been used daily and has travelled more than 32,000 kilometres on the hard shoulders of motorways and trunk roads and is now mainly used on the M4.

The 18-tonne road sweeper vehicle, supplied by Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services, is equipped with a bar magnet which picks up nails and other metal objects, reducing the risk of tyre damage. The road sweeper is also equipped with a high-powered brush, high pressure washing system and nozzle and acts as a litter picker, road sweeper and gully cleaner.