Category: News

In the latest Highways England circular on ongoing approach to the COVID-19 challenges, the government-owned company has confirmed it is continuing to operate as close as possible to business as usual.

Malcolm Dare – executive director for commercial and procurement writes:

‘Engagement Council: We are planning a further call on Wednesday 22 04 2020 at 11.00am for 30 – 45 minutes. The call will be focused around C-19 related activities (current and future plans) and there will be more time available for verbal or written questions. The agenda will be finalised on 20 04 2020 and a diary invite will be sent shortly.

‘Public Health England (PHE) Guidance: The latest PHE guidance was published on 07 04 2020. It continues to emphasise the need to maintain the 2m social distancing as much as possible and offers some further guidance. It explicitly covers construction in order to support the continued operation of the sector. The Construction Leadership Council will be updating the current Site Operating Procedures early next week in line with the latest PHE advice. To help, I have also attached a file showing the best practice that has been developed on the A14 project. I hope that this is of use and please share with other organisations.

‘#TransportHeroes Campaign: To help explain the importance of continuing to operate as close to business as usual as possible Highways England is supporting the #TransportHeroes campaign on social media. Noting that construction has very clear Government support and PHE have clearly said that construction should continue to operate via their guidance, we want to help raise awareness with people outside of construction about the importance of the industry, its support for essential public services and why it needs to continue to operate. You can see our recent posts and follow us on LinkedIn.

‘Should you have any questions please use the Corona.Information@highwaysengland.co.uk e-mail address.

‘Please also keep us fully informed of any challenges that you believe could occur, or you are experiencing, so that we can ensure a coordinated Highways England and supply chain response. Please also continue to work with your normal points of contact within Highways England on a daily basis.

‘Once again thank you for your help and I hope you all have a good Easter break. I look forward to working with your organisations over the coming weeks.’

When Grant Shapps launched the smart motorway stocktake he said: ‘I want all the facts and I want recommendations that could be put in place to ensure that all our motorways are as safe as they possibly can be.’

A perfect benchmark, but one Mr Shapps himself seems to relinquish immediately in the stocktake report. In his introduction, he writes: ‘You may be asking, as I asked: how can a motorway without a hard shoulder have a lower fatal casualty rate than one with a hard shoulder? The answer is that while some risks on these roads are greater, others are less.

‘The risk of a collision between a moving vehicle and a stationary vehicle is higher on non hard-shoulder motorways. But the risk of a collision between two or more moving vehicles is lower. Because when the hard shoulder is removed, technology is installed to smooth traffic flow with variable speed limits, enforced by cameras. Messages warning motorists of incidents ahead are displayed on electronic signs. This means less speeding, less tailgating and fewer rapid changes of speed.’

So technology and other elements are there to mitigate the increased risk of losing a hard shoulder – in short, the system is not the safest it could possibly be.

The report clarifies, as Transport Network has bemoaned before, that there are actually three types of smart motorways. Previously and even in this report, their safety benefits are sometimes lumped together, creating a misrepresentation.

A controlled motorway has new technology to add variable and mandatory speed limits to a conventional motorway and overhead electronic signs display messages to drivers. However, it retains the hard shoulder. A dynamic hard shoulder (DHS) running motorway deploys the same technology but the hard shoulder is only active some of the time. This type of motorway has been abolished now by the Department for Transport (DfT) as it is ‘too confusing’.

The ALR of the matter

That leaves us with the all lane running (ALR) smart motorway, where technology is deployed and the hard shoulder is removed. This is therefore where any safety analysis must focus.

The evidence review by DfT, and the Smart Motorway All Lane Running Overarching Safety Report, released by Highways England, argue the concerns over losing the hard shoulder are offset by the safety benefits of the technology. It found that across the nine all lane running schemes evaluated, the KSI collision rate ‘has increased from 1.03 to 1.18 collisions per hundred million vehicle miles (hmvm), an increase of 0.15 per hmvm which is in line with the national background trend in the same period’.

The DfT claims the ‘most informative performance metric’ is the Fatal and Weighted Injuries (FWI) measure, which counts all fatal injuries, then adds serious injuries with a 10% weighting and slight injuries with a 1% weighting.

Overall, there has been an absolute improvement of 0.10 FWI per hmvm for ALR schemes. The reduction is 0.09 per hmvm better than the national motorway trend.

‘In summary, the results show that the overall performance of the ALR schemes evaluated has improved. Against a background of increasing flows, the safety objective has been met which is no increase in number or rate of FWI casualties.’

So is this the end of it? Not quite. Comparisons between one section of road and the wider network are not the best measurements. As smart motorways are on the busiest routes, they are likely to have the slowest traffic and so arguably these sections of the network would have safety levels over and above the national trend anyway.   

Before and after?

The DfT itself admits that given the number of factors involved ‘to more reliably consider the relative safety of converting a specific section of motorway from one type to another, it is necessary to look at how risks have changed and at the findings of the before and after studies’.

Highways England’s report provides an overarching ‘before and after’ assessment of the first nine ALR schemes, including a counterfactual scenario.

This report found: ‘There has been a 28% reduction in the all casualty rate from 16.8 per hmvm to 12.1 per hmvm when simply comparing the ‘Before’ and ‘After’ period.

‘The counterfactual scenario indicates that a 12% reduction in the casualty rate from 16.8 per hmvm to 14.7 per hmvm might otherwise have been expected.

‘Overall, there has been a statistically significant reduction of 18% in the all casualty rate from 14.7 per hmvm to 12.1 per hmvm when compared to what might otherwise have been expected.

‘The fatal and serious casualty rate across the nine schemes has increased by 14% from 1.19 per hmvm to 1.35 per hmvm when simply comparing the “Before” and “After” period, this is in line with what might otherwise have been expected (a 12% increase from 1.19 per hmvm to 1.32 per hmvm).’

A different story

However it also finds that: ‘Overall, there has been an increase (2%) in the fatal and serious casualty rate from 1.32 per hmvm to 1.35 per hmvm when compared to what might otherwise have been expected (though this is within the statistical margin of error).

‘Of the nine schemes evaluated, three showed a reduction, while six showed an increase. However, these changes were either within the statistical margin of error when accounting for the background trends in casualty rate, or the sample sizes were too small for statistical analyses to be carried out.’

While the DfT’s stocktake states the increase in fatal and serious injury rates was ‘within the margin of error’ it accepts that six out of the nine schemes show an increase, which in itself seems significant.

Breaking this down by the hundred million vehicle miles (hmvm) travelled, the stocktake paints a different story. It found that fatal casualty rates on ALR (0.11 per hmvm) are lower than on conventional motorways (0.16 per hmvm). Slight casualty rates on ALR roads are higher (11 per hmvm) compared to conventional motorways (10 per hmvm), and serious casualty rates on ALR (1.3 per hmvm) are also higher than conventional motorways (1.1 per hmvm).

Another key point is that the main concern about ALR is the fear of breaking down on a live lane and having to wait an average of 17 minutes to receive help. The stocktake reveals that in ALR schemes 40% breakdowns occur in a live lane compared to 20% in conventional motorways.

The before and after research on this presents perhaps the most worrying facts of all: ‘Looking at the first nine ALR schemes before and after their introduction, total live lane collisions have increased from an average of 3 per year before the ALR was introduced to an average of 19 per year after the motorway had been converted to ALR.

‘This is broken down into: 2.3 slight, 0.3 serious and zero fatal live lane collisions on average before; and 9.1 slight, 7 serious and 2.8 fatal live lane collisions on average afterwards. This confirms the expectation in the risk modelling that there would be increased risks associated with vehicles stopping in a live lane.’

While these numbers are admittedly small in themselves they show an enormous increase in risk with fatal consequences. This is based on a single risk factor but an essential one to the design, and to go from three collisions a year to 19 and from no fatalities to 2.8 on just the nine ALR stretches must be considered significant.

When looking at England’s strategic road network (SRN) motorway casualties compared to road traffic proportion (2015-2018), the DfT unhelpfully lumps DHS and ALR together. However this measure found that DHS and LNR schemes presented another worrying risk.

Taken together the ALR and DHS schemes present a higher percentage of total casualties than the percentage of the traffic on the motorway network, in every single year of the study. In 2015 they represented 10.4% of total casualties on SRN motorways and carried 7.6% of the traffic, while in 2016 it was 11.7% of casualties and 9.6% of traffic. In 2017 it was 13.7% for 11.7% of the traffic and in 2018 it was 14.8% for 13.8% of the traffic.

So the casualties were greater than the percentage of traffic, live lane breakdowns increased as a proportion of breakdowns, and where they did, fatalities increased from zero, and the killed and serious injury casualties increased in six of the nine ALR schemes.

The report also doesn’t address the alarming rise in near-miss incidents that were found after the change to ALR on sections of the M25.

One way to settle the argument is an engineering survey of the inherent safety of ALR routes.

The UK is actually a world leader in analysing the inherent safety of a road design through the iRAP methodology. However, the Road Safety Foundation is still developing the model to ensure it is tailored appropriately for smart motorways and so declined to comment on the entire smart motorway issue.?

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.

The HIA brings together a wide range of professional bodies all with a focus on delivery:

• ARTSM,
• ITS (UK),
• IHE,
• ISA UK,
• REMA,
• BPA and
• HCTA 

This comprehensive range of organisations incorporates delivery work on signs, signals and control, highways asset management, all forms of technology and training, skills and qualifications.

All these bodies have agreed to work together to share their knowledge and expertise for the good of the sector.

‘The group’s aim is to make it easier for large public sector organisations such as the Department for Transport, Highways England and devolved governments to have a single point of contact with those organisations involved,’ HIA said in a statement.

‘The Highways Industry Alliance is a broad church and we have worked hard to identify the diverse parties that have a common interest in seeing a close liaison between users, industry and government,’ said ITS (UK) secretary general, Jennie Martin.

‘Our associations and bodies consist of companies across all tiers – large corporations, SMEs and individuals.’

‘We believe we can contribute to the government Industrial Strategy and SME Agenda,’ added Steve Spender, CEO of the IHE.

‘We also think that contractual practices can often disadvantage small firms in the supply chain and that we can offer these organisations a voice.’

Kealie Franklin, general secretary of ARTSM commented: ‘Such a UK forum can only be beneficial in future consultations for transport change, being able to prepare our members and provide guidance and support for the government strategies in the ways that only we can.’

The HIA welcomes anyone in the sector wishing to get involved and stressed that it is not its intention to be seen as being in competition with any other organisations within the sector.

It said that ‘collaboration across different member organisations provides a forum to aid the Government in making decisions for the good of the entire sector and, ultimately, the travelling public’.

Picture: clockwise from top left, Jennie Martin, Paul Hutton (ITS (UK)), Steve Spender, Peter Dipper (HCTA), Mark Pleydell (ARTSM) and Kealie Franklin at their virtual meeting.

As far as we know, there are only two times in the almost 90-year history of this magazine that we have not released a scheduled printed edition. The last time was in the wake of the economic crash of 2008. And here we are again.

This April issue has not been sent to empty offices; it is being sent digitally to wherever you are. And it comes with this simple message from everyone in our team: No matter what the future holds, no matter what happens in the next few months, Highways is here for you.

If at any time you need us, for anything, even just a chat, we are here, so get in contact. This sector has supported this magazine through a world war, an economic depression, recessions and much else. We know in some cases that means we have done business with generations of the same family.

It is our honour to be working with this generation as we rise to meet another great challenge – which we will come through together. In that spirit, we have introduced a new feature this month – a community message board.

It is free to all of you. Your message might be new contact details for remote working, a thank you to your team, it might be just that you are carrying on, or the offer to share help and supplies.

It is a chance to let everyone know you are keeping up the good fight in whatever way you can. Because we all have a part to play, whether that is by self-isolating and stopping the spread of the COVID-19 disease, or carrying on, delivering essential work to keep the network functioning.

I sent my own message to the team this month, and I will pass it on to you because it goes for all our readers too. We don’t just work for ourselves; we work for the entire sector. Times are tough right now, and no one knows what the future holds. But never doubt that you are an amazing team and the days I have spent working with you have been the proudest of my career.

These are strange times. It feels like we are living in a cross between a disaster movie and a never-ending version of the week between Christmas and New Year – except you can’t even escape to the pub.

But this isn’t the worldwide disaster that movies told us to expect. As many have pointed out, this is the one where the heroes are the NHS staff, delivery drivers, cleaners, supermarket workers, local and central government officers, and yes, of course, our highways and transport teams. All of whom are doing what they can, and risking so much, to keep the country going.

It is too early to say much for sure, but even as I write, there are a few cracks of light coming through the clouds. 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.

If things seem dark for you at the moment, please remember these words by poet Seamus Heaney: ‘Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.’

Even when you can see little reason for optimism, there are always grounds for hope.

Stay safe, stay kind, stay resilient.

Dominic Browne

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.

The CLC draws together business leaders from across the sector and has business minister Nadhim Zahawi as a co-chair.

It is working with industry federations to provide support and guidance on health and safety issues and pressing the Government to provide additional support to keep construction companies afloat during the current crisis.

The CLC leadership has also written an open letter to industry calling on the industry to play its part and keep money flowing.

The letter states: ‘There are a number of businesses that have chosen to unilaterally delay payment or extend credit terms. We do not believe this is acceptable or appropriate – particularly at this time of great stress.’

Andy Mitchell the other co-chair of the CLC, said: ‘We are increasingly concerned about the management of payment in the supply chain. All construction businesses should continue to pay in accordance with agreed contractual terms and firms should not be threatening to invoke penalty or other contractual clauses.

‘Our joint priority must be to sustain the industry. All firms should think hard about how their reputation could be damaged by not doing the right thing during these difficult times.’

The difficulties created by the threat of COVID-19 will only be worsened if disputes and penalties are invoked throughout the sector, and if firms sit on cash meant for their suppliers, the CLC said.

The letter also notes that where the industry is asking for substantial support from the Government, it is less likely that this support will be forthcoming if the benefits are not fairly distributed to all parts of the industry.

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.

In a statement, it argued that ‘restrictions around social distancing are likely to be in place for many months – and so construction must find a way to work safely – if we do not, we will be unable to support the UK’s economic recovery’.

Following Mace’s temporary suspension of construction work on Tuesday 24 March, the group’s board announced that it would begin a progressive re-opening of some construction projects from the morning of Tuesday 7 April.

Mace will open sites in accordance with the Construction Leadership Council’s Standard Operating Procedures as soon as possible.

In its statement, the company said: ‘The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone who works on our sites is our first priority. We have made it clear that we would not re-open our construction projects until we were satisfied that it was safe to do so. During this period, there have been ongoing critical works on a number of projects that have allowed us to test and develop our procedures for a wider opening.

‘We are working closely with our clients and supply chain to make this re-opening a success. The Mace Group Board, our construction leadership teams and our project teams will be taking personal responsibility for ensuring that guidance is strictly followed. If it is not, we will close sites immediately.’

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

The series of free online lunchtime workshops have been announced for people working in construction, and aim to provide mental health support including advice on mindfulness and meditation, resilience and controlling stress.

For full details of the wellbeing workshops can be found here.

Sessions, which last for 45 minutes, will run weekly starting from 16 April and take place at 12 noon:

• Thurs 16 April / Top tips for resilience 
• Fri 24 April / Build a work-life Balance 
• Mon 27 April / How to meditate 
• Tues 5 May / How to handle stress 
• Wed 13 May / Mindfulness for you

Bill Hill, CEO of The Lighthouse Club charity, said: ‘Our charity exists to support the welfare and wellbeing of all construction workers and their families in the UK and Ireland. COINS are a technology provider with a big heart and a huge social conscience. We are delighted to be collaborating with them to deliver this series of free wellbeing life skill workshops to help everyone in our industry cope and navigate through these distressing times.’

Another vital source of information, advice and guidance is The Lighthouse Club’s ‘Construction Industry Helpline’ (Tel 0345 505 1956 or mobile app for Android and iOS) which helps people experiencing stress, anxiety or depression as well as providing access to other areas of support such as anger management, drug and alcohol dependency, debt management, legal advice, and emergency financial aid.

Calls to the UK’s ‘Construction Industry Helpline’ have increased 25% over the past 10 days reflecting the rising levels of anxiety and insecurity within the construction industry.

The Lighthouse Club has also raised a £56,000 towards its target of £1m for its new Construction Workers Family Crisis Appeal to help people in construction and their families through the coronavirus crisis.

You can donate to the fund here.

COINS has over 35 years of developing software solutions for construction companies. 

CEO, Robert Brown, adds: ‘The Lighthouse Club has been providing immensely valuable services to support construction workers and their families for many years. We are delighted once again to have the opportunity to collaborate with them in the delivery of a series of invaluable webinars which will provide construction workers with vital health and wellbeing skills during these most difficult and challenging times.’

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 10 saying it has had no effect yet.

The organisations responded to a survey from ITS (UK) on behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT), which is gauging the sector’s challenges in order to coordinate its response.

More than half of the companies were confident that their business would return to normal when the crisis is over, with only a tenth ‘very worried’ about the future.

The survey also found three-quarters had lost business, with work put on hold and contract awards deferred, but only a third have so far furloughed staff or cut pay.

ITS UK revealed that despite the obvious uncertainty, however, most private sector members said the initial impact ‘has not been too severe’ and they remain cautiously optimistic about recovery provided the crisis does not last too long.

‘Government intervention has provided a measure of support, but it is clear some members, such as company directors, are ineligible for help. The survey suggests more clarity about forward investment for research and infrastructure is needed from central and local government,’ ITS UK said in a statement.

‘There is also widespread agreement that the industry should work to ensure that the decrease in transport use, particularly traffic levels, is not completely reversed once the crisis is over. The ITS industry should, they believe, work to promote solutions to retain some of the reduction.’

The members also suggested that Government spending on infrastructure will make a big difference to the recovery of the sector if delivered as planned.

Positives from the change in circumstances may seem few and far between, but some survey respondents suggested it had led to efficiencies from more digital working and using the time to review strategy and goals.

‘While it is very concerning to see the numbers of members reporting negative effects of the current crisis, it is not surprising given the huge changes we have all had to make,’ commented Jennie Martin, ITS (UK) secretary general.

‘However, what is heartening is the can-do attitude of members and their overall optimism for the future. Any member struggling at all can rest assured that ITS (UK) will do all it can to help, and across all our members we hope to learn from this crisis and find some positive outcomes from the current crisis.’

There were 70 response to the survey, out of ITS UK’s 140 members. 

The DfT is now examining the responses and using them to help shape their overall reaction to support the transport industry at this time.

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.

Developed in collaboration with strategic partner, FleetCheck, the online resources provide guidance for a range of situations, including for furloughed drivers with mothballed vehicles or essential drivers operating at maximum capacity.

The new online toolkit provides a series of videos covering:

• Essential Drivers – businesses operating at, or above maximum capacity. Highlighting the challenges around maintaining safety critical policies such as the management of driver fatigue as well as issues around driver recruitment, driver eligibility and sanitisation where multiple employees may be using the same vehicle
• Non-Essential Drivers – those who can now work from home or have been furloughed. Highlighting the issues related to an increase in lone working, mental health and financial challenges
• Business Continuity – maintaining customer relationships and keeping business as financially sound as possible. Looking at different ways of maintaining positive cash flow and the opportunity to focus on fleet efficiency 
• Vehicle Maintenance – lack of engineers due to self-isolation and the closing of garages. Discussing the temporary suspension of MOTs and maintenance schedules, as well as the challenges of maintaining an operational fleet and the implications of mothballing non-essential vehicles
• Fleet Admin and Housekeeping – the importance of ensuring all staff follow established policies. Looking at the recent successful prosecution of a business for a fatal accident following its failure to follow its own fatigue management policies, as well as advice for those running a non-essential fleet to use this time to start developing stronger procedures
• Back to ‘Normal’ – what will ‘normal’ look like in the transport world? Some of the key issues fleet and transport managers will have to address over the coming months, such as the extensive checks required before reinstating mothballed vehicles, important considerations when bringing back furloughed drivers, and why the backlog in vehicle maintenance will cause significant problems.

Peter Golding, founder and managing director at FleetCheck, said: ‘There are various ways in which we are looking at providing genuinely useful, new services for fleets but the COVID-19 Transport Toolkit is probably the most visible.

‘Working in conjunction with Driving for Better Business, we’ve taken the subjects that are being raised most frequently by our customers and produced videos available to everyone that provide pertinent advice in a fast, easy to understand format. If there are other subjects that businesses want to see tackled, we urge them to get in touch with Driving for Better Business or FleetCheck and we will do our best to produce something that answers their need.

‘The videos should be a great help but our job isn’t done yet and there will be much more detailed guidance to come as we drill down, with a range of experts, into specific issues such as managing driver fatigue and the comprehensive pre-use vehicles checks that will be required before any mothballed vehicles are allowed back on the road – something that will be vital to ensure the safety of all road users.’