Liverpool City Council has appointed three contractors to deliver a £35m Highways Improvement Programme (HIP), including Colas.
The council’s Highways and Transportation team and their delivery partners are now progressing with the upgrade of more than 100 roads through the HIP.
The improvement works, funded from a mix of sources including the city council, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and the Department of Transport, will see the delivery of:
• 39 schemes in the north of the city – delivered by Dowhigh
• 33 schemes in the central district of the city – delivered by Huyton Asphalt Civils
• 36 schemes in the south of the city – delivered by Colas
The data-led programme has divided the city across three areas – north, central and south – with a priority criteria which classifies highways schemes into two categories – simple and complex.
A simple scheme will be deemed one that only requires a maintenance intervention and of relatively small scale and complexity. These simple schemes will generally be the first to be delivered on site and the local communities will be informed in advance.
A complex scheme is classed as one that is subject to additional interventions/design considerations, such as active travel, and changes to the traffic regulation order. Consequently these will be delivered at a later stage in the programme, where again local communities and key stakeholders will be informed as they progress through design to site, said the council.
This new approach has been developed in response to criticism from the Best Value report last year on how investment in highways had been managed.
The delivery programme has also been designed to ensure the schedule of works will minimise impact in any one area, avoiding clashes with longer terms schemes already in place.
Councillor Dan Barrington, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, said: “I’m delighted we’ve appointed the contractors to deliver this year’s highways improvement programme.
“They are all experienced firms with a long track record of delivery in the city region, and the local supply chain will benefit greatly from this investment.
“Some schemes will begin immediately and we know this will mean disruption but the long term gains for our communities will be worth it, with safer roads for everyone to use.
“In response to the Best Value report last year we’ve also radically changed how we evaluate our roads to ensure we invest in the right areas and that the contracts deliver the right results.
“Having a data-led, geo-based approach also ensures intelligence-led programming to avoid any clashes on the network and prevent longer journeys and more pollution.
“This will be our first year in adopting this new system so it won’t be perfect, but we will gain a huge amount of new data and evidence as we go along which help us to learn and improve the programme for next year.”
