Collaboration cuts disruption on a single scheme by 57%.

Three and a half months of roadwork disruption has been avoided on one set of roadworks alone.

A huge 105 days of traffic hold-ups have been avoided because of companies working together with LCC across one worksite in Lincoln.

Introduced last year, the Lincolnshire Street Works Charter is a scheme where major utility companies sign-up and action an agreement to work with each other, and LCC, to reduce traffic disruption in the county.

The Street Works Charter’s pioneering approach to three major roadworks projects at Hykeham Road saved 105 days of disruption for road users. This collaborative effort involved Lincolnshire County Council working closely with Cadent Gas and CityFibre to coordinate the delivery of improvements in the area.

The Council delivered a £400,00 footway replacement scheme, while Cadent Gas worked ahead of them to replace 1,000 metres of aging gas pipes. CityFibre moved their diary around to be able to lay ducting for new superfast fibre broadband as part of their £21 million investment in the city.

When LCC, Cadent and CityFibre realised that working separately on the same site would lead to six-and-a-half months of roadworks, the organisations came together, led by LCC, to create a detailed plan of how the projects could be delivered at the same time.

This multi-agency collaboration worked under a one-way road management set up which kept traffic flowing, and created enough space for five different teams (two from LCC, two from CityFibre, one from Cadent) to work on a 850-metre stretch of Hykeham Road simultaneously.

By adopting this unified approach, the teams were able to streamline operations and complete the works over an extended summer period of two-and-a-half months.

Cllr Martin Hill, Leader of Lincolnshire County Council, said: “This is a great example of a huge amount of time being saved by large organisations working together in a productive way.

“It’s a relief that our Street Works Charter has been so encouraged and supported by some very big companies working across the county. This is just the start of the Charter, and it now shows how it is possible for various individual works programmes to be put together to really benefit those who travel around Lincolnshire.

“I hope that more companies step up and we can achieve similar, or even better, results in the coming months by working together like this.”

Cllr Richard Davies, executive member for Highways at LCC added: “With planning for these types of works needing to be done a long time before the crews arrive on site, we have a lot of potential to make serious cuts in disruption, thanks to the Charter.

“We have got lots more work to do, and possibly many more months of traffic disruption to be avoided if we can all get involved in a unified way. The outcome with the Hykeham Road works proves that, with the right plan and approach, we can deliver essential infrastructure improvements more effectively in a way that has been hard to do before.”

William Bessa-Simons, senior investment delivery manager at Cadent Gas, said: “This collaborative work, made possible by the Street Works Charter we signed, has avoided significant prolonged disruption to road users and members of the public. At Cadent as, we are committed to doing further collaborative works to ensure that we reduce our impact where possible.”

Chris Sankey, delivery manager at CityFibre, said: “Working collaboratively with Lincolnshire County Council has been CityFibre’s priority since our Lincoln build started in 2022, and was reinforced with the launch of the Street Works Charter. 

“This resurfacing scheme allowed the CityFibre build teams to accelerate the construction of our network, safe in the knowledge that the Council’s teams were following on to provide quality reinstatement for residents, saving time and resource on the project.

“We would like to thank LCC and Cadent for their co-ordination which enabled us to complete our planned works to the agreed timescales, as well as local residents for their patience and support whilst we completed these essential joint infrastructure works.”