A project to cut congestion and save councils millions of pounds reached a milestone this week as the number of roadworks published on the roadworks.org website topped the two million per year mark.
Part of the drive to save costs and maximise efficiency by promoting partnership working across local authority boundaries, the website is helping to reduce journey times on the UK road network by providing reliable information about roadworks.
Since its re-launch last May, roadworks.org has grown into the leading national road works database for England & Wales.
It presently boasts live data feeds from over 140 local highway authorities and publishes the details of the 7,000 plus new roadworks starting every working day across Britain.
Details on individual roadworks have been accessed more than one million times over the past 10 months - by motorists, the emergency services, businesses, local authorities and utility providers.
Councils are now syndicating the roadworks information on their own websites, travel information services, utility companies’ operational systems and consumer facing websites.
Norman Baker, Local Transport Minister at the Department for Transport, stressed the project's importance for planning and scheduling works and journeys.
“Nobody likes having their journey disrupted by roadworks and that is why we are making it easier for councils to co-ordinate works on their roads as well as helping them incentivise companies to work together when planning work.
"The website makes it easier for motorists to see what roadworks are happening and where so that they can plan an alternative route and also see when work is scheduled to end.”
Mike Ashworth, chair of the National Traffic Managers Forum,urged the few remaining local authorities yet to join up.
He said: "Aaround 95% of road works are managed by local highway authorities and for such a service to be fully effective, it really needs all authorities to be engaged.
"I join the members of ADEPT* in encouraging all local authorities to participate in roadworks.org”
