Council highways teams win prize for keeping roadworks disruption to a minimum

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has written a personal letter of congratulations to a team of Wandsworth Council highways engineers for their concerted efforts at keeping roadworks disruption to a minimum.

The Mayor’s letter announced that the Wandsworth team had been chosen as the winner of a prestigious highways prize – designed to encourage town halls to better co-ordinate roadworks in their boroughs to minimise disruption to the travelling public.

In his letter the Mayor writes: “I want to offer my congratulations to the London Borough of Wandsworth for having been selected as the winner of the Infrastructure Coordination Service’s Collaboration Award – Highway Authority category.

"The Greater London Authority recognises the negative impacts that residents and local businesses experience from repetitive streetworks, and the need to minimise disruption whilst still maintaining resilient infrastructure across London that is fit for purpose. That is why it is important to acknowledge the good work that has been happening behind the scenes in Wandsworth to reduce the frequency and duration of streetworks through collaboration with infrastructure providers.”

Naming the individual members of the team directly, the Mayor added: “You have been the key individuals together with your wider teams involved in piloting collaborations that deploy the ‘dig-once’ approach. On behalf of all Londoners, thank you for all the efforts you undertake with your teams to promote collaborative streetwork projects that coordinate the delivery of the infrastructure London needs to realise good growth.”

Wandsworth’s Cabinet Member for Transport Clare Fraser said: “It’s great that our hardworking team of engineers have been recognised and honoured in this way. The Mayor’s words of tribute are fully deserved.

“Our highways team goes to great lengths to co-ordinate pre-planned roadworks, especially those carried out by the utility companies like gas, water, telecoms and electricity who are responsible for the lion’s share of roads and pavements being dug up in the capital.

“Making sure these different and competing projects are co-ordinated so that they only have to be dug up once makes a huge difference to keeping our local roads and pavements clear and the travelling public on the move.”