Water Industry Award Winners - Morrison Utility Services, Yorkshire Water & Elgin with Streetworks Planning Portal

Streetworks planning is becoming increasingly complex, with multiple data streams and job-specific factors requiring consideration. Morrison Utility Services (MUS) realised that to take planning efficiency to the next level, an integrated approach to consulting planning data sets was needed.  To address this, MUS chose Elgin as a perfect project partner to develop a solution - the Streetworks Planning Portal (SPP).

SPP is a map-based desktop risk assessment tool for integrated streetworks planning to improve efficiency, thoroughness and to reduce cost. It consists of a customised version of roadworks.org, but greatly enhanced with additional data and functionality. It incorporates a number of key datasets and is designed to support visual “desktop risk assessment” of work sites.

The tool enables a reduction in the 'cost of failure' in streetworks operations by providing better intelligence earlier in the process, which can reduce the occurrence and severity of aborts, re-plans and temporary reinstatements, and reduce FPNs arising from failures to comply with the regulations.

Yorkshire Water (YW) is the first utility to adopt the system and since implementing the solution it has seen:

• an increase in jobs planned
• a downward trend in jobs being aborted, reducing overall delivery costs
• an increase in operational productivity (jobs/day)

Alistair Gavins, Contract Manager, YW said, “SPP represents a step change in how we approach planning.  The amount of data it collates and the ease with which it is presented cannot fail to have a positive impact for both Yorkshire Water and its customers.”

Megan Siddle, Planning Manager, MUS added, “SPP is transforming how our team works.  We can now visualise site, safety and customer issues easily.  It has really reduced the pressure on my team.”

SPP has huge potential for use across the streetworks sector. It is flexible enough to integrate with most other systems and processes and is very cost-effective. 

Further positive impacts of SPP’s wider use include:

Customers and Community

• Supports maximising ‘right first time’ planning and enhancing customers’ service perceptions
• More accurate, specific customer communications due to improved understanding of work environments and constraints

Highway Authorities

• Minimises impacts from traffic disruption by facilitating more effective use of available data (streetworks environment, road sensitivities, enhancing scope for collaborative work, etc.)

Health & Safety

• Further reduces H&S incidents - better risk mitigation due to effective presentation of location and other data

Workforce

• Reduces stress associated with complex, high volume planning
• Efficient and accurate planning improves operational teams’ job satisfaction

The winners of the awards will be announced on Monday 20 May.

For more information, please visit the Streetworks Planning Portal Page, or Contact Us