New research from Causeway Technologies the digital construction and maintenance technology provider, shows the UK is heading for roadwork gridlock in the face of rapid infrastructure upgrades, increasing road usage and poor cross-industry collaboration. The report has been developed in partnership with The Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT).
Data from digital road management platform, Causeway one.network shows that the number of roadworks across the UK increased by 42% between 2019 and 2023, with over 203,000 miles of roadworks taking place last year alone.
In addition to scheduled and emergency road maintenance, works by utility firms are rising rapidly, driven by Project Gigabit, asset upgrades and water leaks. Project Gigabit contributed to a 108% increase in telecoms-driven roadworks between 2019 and 2023. In the same period electricity works have risen by 25%, water works by 8%, and gas also by 8%.
With DfT predicting a 54% increase in road usage by 2060, Causeway research finds that an alarming number of utilities (72%) and local highway authorities (LHAs) (62%) leaders believe that we are headed for a road and street work crisis by 2030 without greater industry collaboration.
Leaders from highway authorities and utility companies cite challenges in planning, management and communication, coupled with growing demand for road access, are all contributing to inefficiencies in how works are completed.
A worrying 81% of LHA respondents believe management and communications in roadworks and street works could be improved. Seven in ten in utilities (71%) believe roadworks and street works are currently planned in a disjointed way.
Both LHAs (58%) and utilities (54%) cited poor collaboration as the main barrier to effective work. Half (50%) of LHAs said that the extreme demand for road access from a multiplicity of different utilities firms prevents road work planning and management from becoming more efficient.
Amidst the gloomy outlook, there are some positives with individual works taking less time to complete on average (down by 15.8% between 2019 and 2023).
