Live Labs 2 takes £30m of highways innovation on nationwide roadshow

by Paul Hutton

The learning generated by the £30 million ADEPT Live Labs 2 programme is being taken directly to highways practitioners as a series of regional workshops gets underway this week.

The first workshop takes place in Glasgow on Thursday 17 September, followed by events in Newcastle, Stevenage, Leeds, Manchester, Ipswich and Birmingham. Further sessions will be held in Aberdeen, London and Taunton later in the year.

The free workshops will bring together local authority decision-makers, budget holders and practitioners to examine how the approaches developed through Live Labs 2 can be applied to everyday highways delivery.

Programme Director Giles Perkins will guide attendees through the seven Live Labs, highlighting strategic and practical tools, methods and solutions which could help authorities reduce carbon, save money and improve the way roads are planned, built, maintained and operated.

The workshops have deliberately been kept small to allow detailed discussion, peer learning and practical support. Participants will also be encouraged to discuss the obstacles preventing authorities from adopting new approaches and consider how these can be overcome.

Live Labs 2 was funded by the Department for Transport and delivered by ADEPT. Seven local authority-led projects worked with commercial and academic partners to test ways of decarbonising local roads across four interconnected themes.

Following the end of the original deployment period, the Department for Transport provided a further £300,000 for a fourth year focused on sharing the results and helping successful ideas become business as usual across the sector.

The programme says it has already reached almost 500 people as it works to ensure that the evidence and innovations generated by the original investment do not simply “sit on a shelf”.

Speaking on this week’s Highways Voices podcast, Mr Perkins explains why the roadshow is about more than presenting the programme’s findings. He discusses the importance of listening to practitioners, understanding the pressures facing local highway authorities and helping them identify innovations they can realistically adopt.

The podcast, published on Wednesday 16 September, also examines what Live Labs 2 has learned about turning successful trials into lasting change and why collaboration across local government and industry will be essential.

The initial roadshow dates are: