Two former Chairs of the Road Surface Treatment Association have been honoured with lifetime achievement awards at this year’s annual awards ceremony at Celtic Manor in South Wales.
The event, which followed the RSTA Conference, recognised the contribution of Managing Director of Essex-based Foster Contracting, Tom Foster, and Dave Stannard, who is a retired Associate Director of COLAS.
Mr Foster told Highways News he was: “I feel very honoured that my peers in the industry think I’m worthy of this award, and I’m very grateful,” while Mr Stannard commented that he “I’ve had a great career with Colas and made brilliant friends over the years, and I love to see the younger generations of family businesses coming in and really cementing the surface treatments.”
Four award winners were also recognised at the event.
The HSEQ (Health, Safety, Environment and Quality) Award, sponsored by Colas went to Clee Hill because of its encompassing of the future environmental impact of their equipment and operations whilst ensuring the technical performance and durability remain unimpaired.
The Innovation award sponsored by Foster Contracting was won by LMS Highways for its innovation of rapid-set concrete, which the judges said demonstrated key benefits in terms of environmental sustainability, carbon reduction and productivity benefits on National Highway’s M271 scheme.
Instarmac’s UltraCrete won the WJ Group-sponsored Employment & Skills award for proactively engaging in the training and development of apprentices in the highway maintenance sector.
The Asset Management award sponsored by Kiely Bros went to the Centre of Excellence for Decarbonising Roads (CEDR). The judges said CEDR’s award submission linked two core industry issues together – asset management and decarbonisation, elevating where asset management has been previously and ensures carbon is considered in the life cycle where others may purely focus on saving carbon at the cost of the lifecycle.
Mike Hansford, Chief Executive of the RSTA added: “It is always great to be able to recognise the innovation and development in the highways industry and what better place than at our annual conference where this is being debated and discussed.”
(Picture clockwise from top left, the winners of HSEQ, Employment and Skills, Innovation and Asset Management awards, courtesy RSTA)
