WET News

MAY 2017 WET NEWS 11 Streetworks are top of the agenda at this year's Utility Week Live at Birmingham's NEC from May 23-24, with the return of the Streetworks Village and the launch of a new, dedicated Streetworks Conference, in partnership with NJUG and sponsored by Elgin. Speakers at the conference include Stephen Dance, head of infrastructure delivery at HM Treasury, and David Latham, co-chair of HAUC England. For more information and to book your tickets, go to www.utilityweeklive.co.uk Exhibitors at the Streetworks Zone include: Resapol; NJUG; Colas; Virgin Media; C.Scope; Metal Box; Line Search Before you dig; Landmark Information Group; Aggregate Industries; MBW; Tricel Limited; JSP; Synthotech; PF Cusack; Capture Green; Elgin; Pipe Hawk Plc; SRL Traffi c Management; Streetworks So ware Management; Vivax Metrotech; Kobus; Marwood Group; Filo Form; Cubis Industries. In association with: About the exhibition The ture of street works As we look ahead to the Annual 2017 Utility Week Live conference, NJUG chief executive Bob Gallienne refl ects on what an eventful year it has been for UK streetworks. A new government under Theresa May, the onset of Brexit negotiations and the prospect of another referendum on Scottish independence all mean a changing environment for our members to operate in. Throughout this time, and like many businesses up and down the country, our members have continued to deliver the critical infrastructure - be that water, telecoms, gas, sewerage and electricity - that every home in the UK needs. The annual cost of street works for utilities and contractors totals £1.6 billion alone in addition to the costs to upgrade, expand and connect new customers to their networks. At a time of stretched national and local government nances, our members are contributing signi cantly to the growing UK economy of today and supporting the country's future prosperity. The government's Modern Industrial Strategy Green Paper outlined a clear focus to improve living standards and drive economic growth by increasing productivity across the whole country. Infrastructure investment is an area the UK has historically lagged behind other countries on, and is key to driving the competitive edge to achieve the government's ambitions, especially post Brexit. As government prepares for a growing population (76 million by 2047), which will bring unprecedented housebuilding and infrastructure programmes, it's NJUG's members that are facilitating the infrastructure to make that possible. Vital street works are taking place that underpin the everyday lives of homeowners and businesses across the country – enabling, for example, more people to work from home and increasing their quality of life in turn. I am acutely aware that while infrastructure investment is universally welcomed, o' en the congestion caused by large infrastructure projects and the associated street works is not. As infrastructure investment accelerates in the UK, our members are committed to continuing to work closely with government and local authorities to minimise the disruption through greater collaboration between utilities and by using and sharing innovative methods. From listening closely to the views of our members on the ground it is clear that local authorities already have all the necessary powers to manage utility street works. In trying to nd solutions to reduce urban congestion, and ultimately keep costs on bill payers to a minimum, NJUG's members need to be supported to improve operations through consistent and considered application of powers at a local level. As part of our consistent drive for greater collaboration, NJUG welcomes the Department for Transport's upcoming review into the current permits and lane rental schemes. We're keen to work with government and the Highways Authorities to move to an incentive driven environment to avoid cost penalties on NJUG members for 'business as usual' street works. While there are challenges facing utilities as we seek to deliver on the ambitions of government, there are also far reaching opportunities to ease the path for the roll out of infrastructure, to the bene t of all. The pros and cons of permitting schemes Even with the permitting powers, many councils still don't feel they have suš cient powers to prevent disruption on their road networks. Originally introduced by the last Labour government, lane rental schemes are designed to disincentivise utilities from digging roads when they are busiest. Essentially an evolution of the permit regime, companies rent roadspace, but can avoid high charges by carrying out works during quieter periods such as overnight. In 2012 the government announced that there would be three pilot schemes to trial the lane rental concept. Highways authorities would be able to charge £2,500 a day to utility companies to dig up the busiest roads during peak times. However only two highways authorities have so far volunteered to undertake LRS pilot projects: Kent and Transport for London (TfL). The rst pilot scheme covered 200 miles of roads in the capital run by TfL. A study of the scheme, published in 2014, found that following the introduction of the scheme, around 90% of utility works and 99% of works carried out by TfL in the lane rental areas had taken place outside of peak times. However, there were a number of other factors at play and the report did not attribute the success to the LRS. All the main utility companies using the LRS had signed up to the use of rapid drying materials, which T¤ said had considerably reduced the amount of time required to reopen roads and helped to save approximately 2,700 days of disruption across London. Counterbalancing these cost and time savings, the study found that utilities and their contractors had to pay sta¦ more to work unsocial hours. Even the price of accessing some materials was higher out of normal oš ce hours, it found. The Local Government Association, which represents councils throughout England, claims its members are being held back from introducing lane rental schemes by having to obtain approval from the Department for Transport to do so. But Kier's Anita Solanki worries that that utilities could be put o¦ from carrying out day to day maintenance and refurbishment works if lane rental becomes more common, which could ultimately lead to a deterioration in the quality of assets. "Works would become reactive because of the cost." With a number of questions still to be answered around lane rental schemes, the Department for Transport is expected to begin another evaluation of the trial projects shortly. the Department for Transport is expected to begin another evaluation of the trial projects shortly. The FT Replacement Stop Tap Locking Lid - Customer Saves £222,500 in just 9 months! Yorkshire Water (YW) has been using the FT replacement stop tap locking lids for over 15 years. The average cost to YW for a complete reinstatement of a stop tap box is £330. Whenever possible they will simply replace the lid which, including the cost of a street furniture operative visit, averages £80 per lid. This means that YW saves £250 every time they replace a locking lid! Between April and December 2016, YW used 890 lids. In just 9 months the company has saved £222,500 by not having to completely reinstate stop tap boxes. Yorkshire Water comment: The YW Capital scheme for street furniture is allocated each year and always under severe pressure so we rely upon innovative solutions to save both time and money. The locking lid concept allows us to send one resource to site; the repair is completed on rst inspection rather than relying on another team to be deployed to complete the works. There are obvious cost savings on resource, planning, materials, traš c management etc. but also o' en these covers are reported missing by Highways so we have a duty to respond (under S81 NRSWA) within 2 hours, so it's far better for us to send a man in a van to complete a repair than diverting a gang from planned works. Also obviously we minimise risk to pedestrians and road users with a timely repair. FT Pipeline Systems will be on Stand H10 at Utility Week EXHIBITOR VIEW

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