The British Standards Institution (BSI) has awarded Essex County Council and its highways partner, Ringway Jacobs, the prestigious ISO 55001 for effective maintenance of Essex roads.
The asset management award comes as Essex Highways is set to invest £9.1m in installing 23,000 more energy-saving LED streetlights across the county between September this year and January 2019, in a bid to save £21m over 20 years.
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Andrew Cook and Mark Rowe
This is in addition to the 19,000 all-night streetlights currently being converted to LED up until April 2018, delivering an expected saving of £24m over 20 years. Essex is also investing £66m in road surfacing this year.
Carla Whyte, senior client propositions manager at BSI commented: 'Certification to ISO 55001 will provide Essex’s Highways Service, their customers and other stakeholders with the assurance that they are carrying out best practice in the management of physical assets.
'A robust asset management system helps make the most of assets while balancing financial, environmental and social costs, risk, quality of service and performance and Essex’s highways service should be proud that they are able to demonstrate this.'
Andrew Cook, director for highways and transportation at Essex County Council, said: 'This is a major recognition of our approach by BSI and establishes us as one of the leading highways authorities in the UK. The ISO award recognises our excellent management of highways maintenance. It’s how we prioritise repairs and improvements to make the most effective use of taxpayers’ money.
'I pay tribute to our strategic partnership for Highways with Ringway Jacobs, who now have their second Highways contract ISO 50001 in the UK. Essex Highways is one of just a handful of highways authorities in the country to achieve this standard, which is great news to help keep Essex moving.'
The award is also important in helping Essex do well in the Department for Transport's self-assessment process and thus retain cash from the Incentive Fund.
Ringway Jacobs Essex service director, Mark Rowe, said: 'Everyone in our team is working together to give residents in Essex the best achievable roads for the investment available. Ringway Jacobs has now proved, in two of our council highways partnerships, that we are world-class at delivering an asset-led approach.'
Essex’s total highways infrastructure is valued at more than £10bn (excluding land) and includes:
• More than 5,000 miles of roads
• 4,000 miles of footways and cycleways
• 4,000 miles of public rights of way
• 125,000 streetlights
• More than 1,500 bridges, culverts, subways and tunnels
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