News

29/05/2020

Local highway authorities are facing a funding 'cliff edge' with no sign of what to expect for 2021-2022 despite hopes the local sector was moving to the same five-year funding pattern as the national network.

28/05/2020

JAG(UK) and Elgin have teamed up to support local authorities implement transport restart plans as the country emerges from lockdown, including mapping and publicising COVID testing facilities.

28/05/2020

Siemens Mobility Limited has won a contract with Transport for West Midlands to provide connected mobility infrastructure and software services for the Midlands Future Mobility (MFM) project.

28/05/2020

A handful of contractors have scooped places on £300m planing and surfacing framework in Yorkshire.

28/05/2020

28/05/2020

Costain has won a £2m consultancy programme management contract to deliver Bradford Council’s Smart Street Lighting project.

28/05/2020

Ringway Hertfordshire has employed artificial intelligence (AI) during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow essential highways maintenance checks to safely continue.

28/05/2020

FM Conway has won a term maintenance contract worth at least £70m with the London Borough of Southwark, covering both planned and reactive works until 2026 with an option to extend to 2028.

28/05/2020

The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has called for a new statutory resilience framework, maintained and observed by regulators and contractors with new powers and responsibilities.

27/05/2020

The UK Roads Board has worked up a draft specification for new research on machine surveys and asked ministers to consider reforms to the self-assessment process.

26/05/2020

Emergency legislation has come into force to help councils speed up the process behind making emergency traffic orders.

26/05/2020

The Government has announced the preferred route for the £1bn A66 dualling scheme.

26/05/2020

Highways England has set every supplier the target of halving their accident frequency rate (AFR) over the next 12 months.

22/05/2020

There is now just a fortnight to go until free online entry closes on Friday 5 June for this year’s Highways Awards taking place at a gala dinner scheduled for 13 October 2020 at the Royal Lancaster London.

22/05/2020

The Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) and Amey have published the Green Finance Toolkit for local authorities.

22/05/2020

The Government has published a new statutory code of practice for street works, and quietly backtracked on plans to increase the guarantee on road openings from two to five years.

22/05/2020

Swarco Traffic has installed a parking and management system for Warwick University to support development plans for the campus that could see the student population grow by as much as 40% by 2030.

21/05/2020

WeAreTheCity has announced the 2020 Rising Stars winners in transport and logistics with up and coming figures from Transport for London taking gongs and one from Highways England making the shortlist.

21/05/2020

New industry guidance from the Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) and council directors' body ADEPT provides best practice and technical information for the application of asphalt surface course preservation treatments.

21/05/2020

The National Winter Service Research Group (NWSRG) has announced a major milestone in the development of new national winter service guidance, with the publication of the planning section.

21/05/2020

Highways understands the Government is establishing a series of national recovery groups covering areas including economy, transport and environment.

21/05/2020

Professional services firm, KPMG, has appointed Dr Sarah Owen-Vandersluis as its UK head of future mobility and Edwin Kemp as UK head of automotive strategy, with immediate effect.

20/05/2020

Intelligent kerbside and smart parking provider, AppyWay, has welcomed former Cisco UK and Ireland CEO, Phil Smith CBE, to its board as non-executive chairman.

20/05/2020

WJ has started working with authorities on marking more cycle lanes and social distancing footway demarcations, in line with the emergency measures the Department for Transport has called for.

19/05/2020

The Road Safety Markings Association (RSMA) has written to transport secretary Grant Shapps calling for all marking companies working on the public road network to be National Highways Sector Scheme #7 (NHSS#7) certified by a UKAS accredited body.

16/05/2020

Scotland is on the verge of a breakthrough in road management that could change the entire industry and provide major pain relief for some of the headaches officers and politicians go through daily. Dominic Browne reports.

15/05/2020

The Government has published guidance for employers and staff on how to get back to work safely in construction and outside sites.

15/05/2020

The Government has published the highway maintenance allocations for each highway authority in England for 2020/2021.

15/05/2020

Central Government has outlined its vision for creating an extensive public charging infrastructure across the strategic road network (SRN).

14/05/2020

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has unveiled a £1.7bn Transport Infrastructure Investment Fund to improve roads, bridges and support targetted schemes such as bus lanes or safety interventions.

14/05/2020

Re-flow is offering two free digital forms to help strengthen social distancing measures to anyone in the highways and infrastructure sector, as sites begin to reopen and people get back to work.

14/05/2020

Former DfT director, and current RAC Foundation director, Steve Gooding, reacts to the news that the City of London is looking to place further restrictions on vehicle use as people return to work in the Square Mile.

14/05/2020

Leading infrastructure services company FM Conway has secured a contract for the second phase of the Illuminated River project – a major public art commission for the capital’s bridges.

14/05/2020

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has refused to limit speeds across England despite the lockdown's quiet roads prompting an increase in extreme speeding.

14/05/2020

Past chief executive of the Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE) Richard Hayes, takes a look at what the new normal means for highways and transport.

13/05/2020

The Department for Transport (DfT) is using a 'dashboard' of local authority transport data to oversee the relaxation of the lockdown as well as understand potentially longer-term impacts on travel habits.

13/05/2020

Tarmac and SH Structures have achieved a major milestone on a transformational project in Cambridge with the delivery of the new Abbey Chesterton Bridge.

12/05/2020

The Government has pledged to release £250m to councils for the reallocation of road space to active travel 'within weeks', as part of a wider multi-billion pound package, backed by statutory guidance.

12/05/2020

SRL Traffic Systems has increased its variable message sign (VMS) fleet size by over 150% and is set to expand its dedicated VMS team.

11/05/2020

Traffic technology group, Swarco has launched a traffic management platform called MyCity designed to support the latest mobility trends including EV charging, micromobility, floating car data and air quality.

07/05/2020

The Government and the construction industry have outlined guidance on responsible performance and enforcement of contracts impacted by the COVID-19 emergency.

07/05/2020

Marie-Claude Hemming, Director of External Affairs, Civil Engineering Contractors Association, argues that managing disputes arising from C-19 is vital for the delivery of the second road investment strategy (RIS 2).

07/05/2020

As he prepares to unveil plans on Sunday for how the UK can come out of lockdown, prime minister Boris Johnson suggested the difficulty of social distancing on public transport should lead to a 'golden age of cycling'.

07/05/2020

The Road Safety Foundation has been awarded nearly £200,000 to develop a specialist resource to help local authorities analyse risks to vulnerable road users in towns and cities.

06/05/2020

In the latest in a series of articles from the Association for Road Traffic Safety and Management (ARTSM), Peter Diamond, chairman of Pudsey Diamond Engineering and chair of an ARTSM working group, discusses the evolution of the bollard.

06/05/2020

The RAC Foundation has announced that Neville Jackson – former chief technology and innovation officer at the consultancy Ricardo PLC - has taken over as its chair from Joe Greenwell CBE.

06/05/2020

Transport Scotland has re-allocated £10m to pay for 'pop-up walking and cycling routes or temporary improvements to existing routes' in order to support social distancing.

06/05/2020

Tom van Vuren (pictured), technical director and practice leader for transport planning at Mott MacDonald, Australia, discusses what the COVID-19 outbreak can teach us about transport modelling.

06/05/2020

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced the ‘London Streetspace’ programme to accommodate a potential ten-fold increase in cycling and five-fold increase in walking when lockdown restrictions are eased.

05/05/2020

The £1.5bn A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon scheme, Britain’s biggest road-building project, has opened to traffic eight months ahead of schedule.

05/05/2020

Kier has won a 12-month contract extension with Surrey County Council worth £40m.

04/05/2020

Dominic Browne speaks to Ray Mullett, managing director of Associated Asphalt Contracting Ltd, about the company's recent major successes, its plans for the future, and moments that change your life.

04/05/2020

Dominic Browne looks at the debate around long-term changes post COVID-19 and whether more road space will be reallocated to active travel.

04/05/2020

Highways England is now making 98% of its supplier payments within five days as part of efforts to boost cash flow to the industry throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

01/05/2020

Prime minister Boris Johnson has said the UK is 'past the peak' of the coronavirus and next week the Government will unveil a 'comprehensive plan' to end the lockdown, get transport moving again and restart the economy.

01/05/2020

Leading barrier manufacturer Highway Care has made a strategic investment in Solar Gates UK, securing 30% of the company for an undisclosed fee.

30/04/2020

The UK's biggest traffic and transport show, Traffex and Parkex, has announced new dates for 2021 when it will return to Birmingham's NEC on the 15, 16 and 17 June.

30/04/2020

Latest traffic volume statistics have prompted West Sussex County Council to plead for motorists to only travel if absolutely essential. . 

30/04/2020

TRL research suggests voice-activated in-car technologies are less distracting than touchscreens and could be the future of automotive infotainment if combined with artificial intelligence.

30/04/2020

AmeyVTOL has successfully demonstrated the first drone inspection of UK infrastructure to go beyond visual line of sight (BVLoS).

27/04/2020

Highways has teamed up with the UK's leading mental health charity Mind to provide support and guidance in these difficult times and to celebrate the work done by infrastructure companies to help their workforces.

27/04/2020

Highways England has named three contractor partners to deliver the future smart motorway programme worth up to £4.5bn.

27/04/2020

WSP has been retained as the sole supplier for Leeds City Council’s Highways and transportation civil engineering core contract under a new 10-year partnership.

26/04/2020

The Highways Sector Council (HSE) has released specific health and safety operational guidance for the roads sector to protect itself during the coronavirus pandemic.

26/04/2020

With workers’ health at the forefront of everyone’s mind right now, Kate Walker, director of the Diabetes Safety Organisation, gives advice on how to support staff with diabetes and manage its risk.

26/04/2020

The Road Safety Markings Association has cancelled its Annual Conference and Awards event, which was due to take place on 29th October 2020.

24/04/2020

For several years now, Metrail Construction Limited has been one of the UK's leading specialist contractors for repair and maintenance services, including concrete repair, bridge deck waterproofing and bridge deck expansion joints. Highways meets managing director Martyn Sherwood for a briefing on the history of the firm and where it will go next.

24/04/2020

With his regular messages to the sector, Highways England's executive director of commercial and procurement, Malcolm Dare, has helped keep highways moving throughout the coronavirus crisis. He speaks to Dominic Browne

23/04/2020

The Government has set up an online booking system for key workers to arrange a test for the coronavirus, including highways and transport workers.

23/04/2020

Operators of toll roads will seek additional government funding when COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease, because they are now keeping their infrastructure open despite revenue nosediving or, in some places, disappearing completely.

23/04/2020

KierWSP has won an extension to its Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) contract in a deal worth between £92m and £120m for an initial 16-months with the option of a further nine.

23/04/2020

Highways fleet and services company Multevo has won praise for its approach to COVID-19, providing extensive and detailed guidance straight to phones through a bespoke app.

22/04/2020

Highways England has broken up its £400m concrete works for the second road investment strategy (RIS 2) into four elements.

21/04/2020

Environmental campaigners have launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £38,000 to take the Department for Transport (DfT) to court and block the second road investment strategy (RIS 2).

20/04/2020

Following the official launch of the Highways Sector Council (HSC), Dominic Browne speaks to chair Leon Daniels - formally of Transport for London and the 2012 Olympics fame - and spokeswoman Anna Delvecchio, a key architect of the Government's sector deal in rail, about HSC's big plans and big challenges.

20/04/2020

The Government and the Highways Sector Council (HSC) have formulated the beginnings of an exit strategy and recovery plan to boost the sector both now and as it emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, Highways can reveal.

19/04/2020

The Highways Sector Council (HSC) has been 'collating information and providing guidance' for the Department for Transport on the impacts of COVID-19, with a focus on developing a recovery programme.

17/04/2020

Highways England has moved to daily payment runs in order to boost cash flow for the highways sector throughout the coronavirus crisis.

17/04/2020

Matthew Lugg OBE has been selected to chair the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) Road Environment Working Party.

16/04/2020

First secretary of state, Dominic Raab, has confirmed that the UK will be under lockdown for another three weeks, however, he outlined five key tests that will dictate when the restrictions will be lifted.

16/04/2020

Marlborough has continued their recent run of success and bagged a £56m highways maintenance contract with the London Borough of Haringey.

16/04/2020

The construction industry’s leading procurement contract suite, NEC, has issued guidance for navigating its contracts during the coronavirus.

16/04/2020

Hertfordshire County Council has appointed Interserve Construction to carry out the final phase of a £23m improvement project on the A602.

16/04/2020

Sheffield based material engineering company Roadmender Asphalt has launched a new road repair material that aims to be greener, faster to install and less expensive than traditional asphalt.

15/04/2020

We are living through some frightening and destabilising times, but we do have the chance to think about the future and to start laying the groundwork now.

15/04/2020

On 31 March, the Highways Industry Alliance (HIA) formally launched at a virtual meeting, ratified its terms of reference and announced its first chair, Jennie Martin of ITS United Kingdom, and vice chair, Kealie Franklin (pictured) of ARTSM. In this article, Ms Franklin discusses the alliance's aims and ambitions.

15/04/2020

Former Department for Transport director and current director of the RAC Foundation, Steve Gooding (pictured), discusses the recent release of the second road investment strategy (RIS 2) for Highways England in light of COVID-19.

15/04/2020

The Government's action plan for the supply and delivery of PPE does not allocate any to transport workers despite 26 having died in the capital alone from COVID-19 so far.

09/04/2020

Highways England updates the industry on the COVID-19 challenge.

09/04/2020

The Department for Transport’s ‘stocktake’ of smart motorways was launched last October and originally due to take weeks. It was published in March this year and argued that smart motorways were a safety improvement – but a qualified one. An action plan has been launched to address concerns. However, Dominic Browne argues that questions remain.

09/04/2020

The Highways Industry Alliance, a new collaboration of highways-related industry trade bodies and societies, has had its first full (online) meeting as an organisation.

09/04/2020

The dreaded curve is being flattened; some countries are through the worst and others are turning the corner. We are starting to see our way through to the end of the beginning. And after that comes the beginning of the end.

09/04/2020

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has criticised a number of firms for delaying payments and called on the sector as a whole to help each other by boosting cash flow at this time of crisis.

08/04/2020

The infrastructure firm Mace has announced that it will start reopening sites, and end its temporary suspension of construction work across UK projects in response to the coronavirus.

08/04/2020

A series of free online ‘wellbeing workshops’ will be held through a new collaboration between the Lighthouse Club charity and software firm Construction Industry Solutions.

08/04/2020

A quarter of the private sector membership of ITS (UK) has reported the coronavirus crisis has already had 'a significant effect' on their businesses, with only one in ten saying it has had no effect yet.

08/04/2020

Marlborough Surfacing has extended a relationship with the London Borough of Hackney that began in 2011 by clinching a new term maintenance deal that could be worth up to £100m.

08/04/2020

Driving for Better Business, the Highways England programme to help employers reduce road risk, has created an essential ‘Transport Toolkit’ of free online resources to help fleets and businesses through the coronavirus pandemic.

08/04/2020

Paul Boss has been appointed chief executive of the Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) and will take up his new post on 1 July.

07/04/2020

Eurovia Surfacing has outlined the range of safety strategies that have enabled it to maintain critical operations on the strategic road network (SRN) to support Highways England.