DfT issues new guide for utility operations

23 May 2007

New guidelines for utilities companies and local authorities to better manage street works were released by the Department for Transport last week.
The best practice guide, launched at the Surveyor and HAUC-organised HSC conference in Telford last week, promotes safety as a priority for street works and co-operation and co-ordination, to minimise disruption, congestion and the environmental impact of works. It suggests that ‘the right balance needs to be found between the needs of the utility companies, seeking to maintain essential services, and highway authorities striving to keep traffic moving for all their road-users’.
The guide features several case studies of how local authorities are working toward improving their street works services, including a ‘ground-breaking and unique’ partnership between East Sussex County Council’s highways authority and EDF Energy Networks.
Representatives from both organisations, Richard Wakelen, EDF Energy’s head of street works, and Roger Williams, East Sussex County Council’s traffic manager, spoke at the conference about their agreement, which includes a joint partnership board, a balance of performance indicators and joint process improvement workshops.
The guide was written with the assistance of the National Joint Utility Group (NJUG), and reflected NJUG’s own, newly-launched Vision for streetworks, which ‘sets out a road map for the future delivery of world-class street works in the UK’, said Wakelen. In welcoming the guide, Wakelen said: ‘NJUG… will continue to work with the Government and local authorities to identify and promote examples of how works in the street can continue to be improved.’

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