Posted on Tuesday 9th June 2020
Helen Fisher
From carrying out minor road repairs to major infrastructure projects, Staffordshire County Council’s highways teams have continued to work hard through the lockdown period to ensure the road network is maintained and foundations are laid for future growth.
It has been mostly business as usual with extra steps taken to help ensure supplies could be maintained and with teams following safe operating procedures in line with Government guidance, including enhanced hygiene and social distancing measures.
Last week they received a welcome boost with an additional £5million pledged by the county council to support extra pothole repairs and general road maintenance.
Major projects such as the Stafford Western Access Route, Lichfield Southern Bypass and i54 South Staffordshire have carried on with minimal disruption. These are largely paid for by funding secured from private developers and central government funding through local enterprise partnerships.
The county council’s contract partner Amey has been working with the authority since 2014. Over the last six years the partnership has successfully delivered a number of major infrastructure projects across the county supporting the creation of over 10,000 jobs and 8,500 new houses.
This Infrastructure+ contract delivers a range of highway services including infrastructure management, transport planning, environmental services, structures design and maintenance and highway maintenance.
Working as a single team brings huge benefits, including consistency in the council’s specification, requirements and expectations. End-to-end design and delivery also significantly reduces the time and cost for developers, helping to make Staffordshire an ever greater place for them to want to invest.
Staffordshire County Council’s highways and transport leader Helen Fisher said:
Our teams have been busy throughout the lockdown period and projects have continued wherever they can. The priority remains on considering public safety, the safety of our teams and suppliers’ operations.
They are helping ensure that our roads are as safe as possible for all those that are travelling to through the pandemic period and we have asked people to support them in doing just that.
Work ranges from the repair of minor road defects to major infrastructure projects, keeping them on schedule and ready for completion as this difficult time passes.
Schemes such as the Stafford Western Access Route and Lichfield Southern Bypass are largely taking place off road so there is little disruption to the network.
Our successful contractual arrangement with Amey streamlines design and construction which drives down costs which is important, particularly in economically turbulent times.”
David Ogden, business director for transport infrastructure at Amey, added:
Covid- 19 brought many challenges in terms of keeping our people safe and ensuring that the network was safe for key workers to get to and from work. The collaborative relationship we have with Staffordshire County Council has meant that we’ve been able to address those challenges together and adapt our approach to highways maintenance, resulting in the best outcomes for Staffordshire.”