Every time a Local Authority is asked to approve any activity on the roads, whether skip permits, section 171 licenses or street parties, they have to check nothing else is going on. Not great if your village street party conflicts with a sewer repair on the High Street… This is where roadworks coordination is crucial.
Roadworks Coordination made Easier
The UK enjoys good infrastructure management, but thousands of activities disrupt Britain’s roads every day. Roadworks coordination plays a crucial role in ensuring that all bodies involved in this share information. Local Authorities are the guardians of this knowledge at a local level, collated at a national level in Roadworks.org. The great thing about this information is that it is set out in an open standard, making it accessible to (in theory, at least) everyone. By looking at forward plans – minimum notice periods are required for various types of activity, the opportunity exists to communicate information previously locked away in separate organisations.
By combining information from roadworks.org and activities proposed by those wanting to work on our roads, SpringboardIT has developed a system that identifies expected conflicts by exception. The user can interrogate the system over time periods, view details at a map level, zoom in to fine granularity.
Steve Bloomer from SpringboardIT “We are scraping the surface of what can be done. Roadworks coordination will continue to improve as the users see how sharing this information can make their lives easier”.
How to Improve
Sharing information for roadworks coordination is not perfect. Too often roadworks are shunted in at the last moment, e.g. classified as ‘Emergency work’. Also, Local Authorities generally don’t have systems that allow external users to access this information.
Have an idea about how your can use this sea of information to provide a better service? SpringboardIT will provide a technically sophisticated and long-lasting solution for you and your users.
Screenshots of Roadworks coordination app

Conflict management screen

Details immediately on screen

Zoom in and out for more detail