Through close collaboration WJ Group, Causeway Technologies and Dorset Council developed an innovative road marking asset management strategy to optimise budgets and enhance road user safety.
The data-driven approach, which is the first supply chain collaboration of its kind specifically targeting road markings, was taken to develop a comprehensive asset management strategy for Dorset Council. Its success has already been evidenced by the council’s review of spend allocation, increasing road marking allocation from £125,000 to £255,000. This was achieved as Dorset Council could present factual evidence to its Councillors, and outline how the new strategy would realise whole-life cost benefits, bring the road network up to the required standard more efficiently, and increase road user safety through greater visibility.
WJ, Causeway and Dorset Council developed this new strategy and accompanying maintenance schedule by bringing together a large and diverse data set. This was completed through a one-week survey of the road network by WJ using their latest retro-reflectivity surveying equipment. WJ also supplied the partnership with performance information for a range of treatments and line marking options, including durability details, cost transparency for up to 10 years, and the carbon values.
Dorset Council then provided maintenance schedules so the new strategy could account for other planned activities preventing conflict and cost duplication. Three years’ worth of Dorset’s STATS19 collision information was also imported into the model.
Using this information, Causeway Technologies’ combined the data in its Horizons software to produce maintenance schedules, allowing Dorset Council to assess how they would get the best return for their budget investment. Collision hotspots on rural unlit roads were identified as a priority, enabling the council to consider higher-performance products for these roads, supporting increased night and wet night visibility.
John Warne, Business Development and Marketing Director at WJ Group said: “The hugely successful project demonstrates the power of supply chain collaboration. We can see that when local authorities are armed with the clear evidence that this approach gives them, they are able to ensure their plan works more effectively to maximise the use of their budgets and improve the performance of their network. It’s also great to see that it supported a robust application for suitable budget provision to achieve their targets and importantly improve the quality and safety of the road network for the road user.”
The pilot trial was realised after WJ identified an opportunity to reduce existing limitations of the disparate nature of asset information. By combining WJ’s specialist knowledge and equipment, Causeway’s Horizon software and the data from Dorset Council, the accuracy and quantity of data could be increased and integrated.
John Warne continued: “An effective asset management strategy is vitally important for local authorities. Not only are budgets being tightened, and demands increasing, but it is also necessary for them to achieve Band 3 compliance in the Department for Transport’s ’Well Managed Highway Infrastructure’ Incentive Fund. This gives them access to additional resources to support the delivery of their highway maintenance programme.”
“We were keen to clearly and easily present budget and carbon output projections to highlight that this key element of environmental responsibility was being monitored, and future programming decisions were being made taking this into account. The overall collaboration resulted in a more effective strategy that significantly enhances value for the local authority and delivers a better experience for road users and the local community.”
Mike Hansford, Highways Asset Management Team Leader at Dorset Council: “The key factor in our highways asset management strategy is using asset data to support our decision making. This information is presented to our senior decision makers to enable them to make informed decisions about how we invest our funding allocations.
This collaborative project brought together expertise from our strategic lining partners at WJ, combined with further specialisms from our asset management systems provider (Causeway Technologies). With input from our technical team, we then developed an approach to managing the road marking asset that brings together data sets to identify a targeted programme of line remarking.
This will support objectives set out in our Highways Service Plan linked to reducing transport related casualties and improving safety for all users of our network. The model will also be used to compare scenarios linked to carbon reduction for future line marking strategies.”
Following the success, WJ Group hopes to replicate this across the UK to enrich asset management strategies and deliver a more effective highway maintenance programme.
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