Severn Trent Water fined £56,000 for misuse of road closure powers in Shropshire
Severn Trent Water has been ordered to pay more than £56,000 for unnecessary disruption to the public on Shropshire Council’s highways network. It’s due to misuse of the statutory powers that enable utilities companies to close a road for work classified as “emergency/urgent work” without prior planning or notification. At Telford Magistrates Court on Monday […]
Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Highways team ready for winter
The highways team at Bath & North East Somerset Council have begun their preparations for winter by stocking up on gritting salt, refilling grit bins and making sure its fleet of gritting lorries are ready. 2,176 tonnes of salt has been procured and is in dry storage at the council’s Clutton depot, with all 434 […]
Kier wins £225m Somerset highways deal
Somerset Council has signed a new eight-year highway maintenance contract with Kier Transportation to replace Milestone Infrastructure. The £225m contract covers key maintenance works, including road repairs, drainage, verge cutting and winter gritting. Somerset’s current contract with Milestone Infrastructure comes to an end at the end of March 2024. In a change to the way […]
Balfour Beatty starts the search for sub-contractors for A66 upgrade project
Balfour Beatty has started the search for sub-contractors to support it on the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine upgrade project. The company is looking for firms to help it with some major elements of the upgrade including earthworks, steelworks and pavements. After delivery consent is awarded by the DfT, work is expected to start next year on […]
Road safety, surface treatment and bid writing all covered in an extra Highways Voices from Highways UK
We collected more content than we could fit into our podcasts from the highly successful Highways UK show last week, so here’s an extra podcast with more conversation and thought leadership at the event. These are brought to you thanks to the sponsorship of AGD Systems and Traffic Group Signals, Kiely Bros, Re-flow, Stantec and Yunex Traffic. We start by hearing a key […]
Dott puts cameras on escooters in London
The micromobility operator Dott is to put AI cameras on selected escooters in London to try to understand rider behaviour. It follows research using cameras from Luna Systems on escooters in Brussels, Grenoble and Tel Aviv to see where people rode, and why, focussing on pavement riding. The company gathered data from 3,000 trips covering […]
New laws passed to make charging an electric vehicle easier and quicker
New laws have been approved by MPs aimed at ensuring that prices across Electric Vehicle chargepoints are transparent and easy to compare, and a large proportion of new public chargepoints have contactless payment options. Providers will also be required to open up their data, so drivers can easily find an available chargepoint that meets their […]
Parliamentary committee backs EV “mythbusting” initiative
MPs from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Electric Vehicles have backed an initiative which aims to “bust myths” about EVs and “put facts before fiction”. The #StopBurningStuff campaign says it is helping to “level the playing field in a time of increased misinformation”. Representatives from The REA (Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology), FairCharge […]
20mph opponents plan go slow protests
Protestors in Wales are planning a “National Convoy Day” on Saturday, driving to Cardiff to show their opposition to the new country-wide residential 20 mile per hour speed limit. The South Wales Argus reports the go-slow is being organised by a 57 year old from Cardiff, with convoys from Newtown, Magor Services, Pont Abraham Services […]
Scottish road casualties up 10% year-on-year
New figures show there were 5,621 road casualties reported across Scotland in 2022, which is 506, or ten per cent higher than 2021, although down 51% compared to 2013. Analysts suggest the increase in casualties in 2022 may be linked to the higher levels of traffic seen in 2022 compared with 2021. The Department for […]