They cost a fortune, the public hates them, but the country couldn’t function without them. Mathew Beech looks at utility streetworks.

Behind the temporary traffic lights and “road closed” signs, quietly and slowly there is a revolution going on. Streetworks are adopting new technologies to make things safer, quicker and cheaper.

Gas, electricity and running water are essentials for modern life, and essential to the job of maintaining them are streetworks, with their hi-vis-clad engineers keeping the lights on, the gas flowing and the water running. However, to many motorists and householders, this work is notable only for the disruption it causes.

A report commissioned by the National Joint Utilities Group (NJUG) and conducted by PA Consulting recently revealed that utilities undertook 1.5 million streetworks in 2014/15, which equates to six million man-hours of road occupation (see Bob Gallienne’s column, p24).

Paying for this work to maintain a safe and reliable supply of water, electricity and gas cost utility companies between £1.5 and £2 billion in 2014/15, according to the NJUG report. Meanwhile, the Department for Transport estimates that streetworks cost the UK economy £4.3 billion a year.

Utilities, contractors and highway authorities are working to minimise this impact, and have achieved a significant shift in the way streetworks are conducted – from introducing innovative no-dig technologies (see p26) through to the development of cloud technologies. Together, these have cut the cost and duration of streetworks, in some cases by 90 per cent.

The “core and vac” technique adopted by National Grid Gas, and other utilities, is estimated between April 2011 and March 2014 to have helped reduce delays in London by a cumulative 5,670 days.

The system involves cutting a circular hole in the road before extracting the material surrounding the pipes and wires being accessed. This typically removes only 20 per cent of the aggregate that open trench works would, and sees the total job time potentially cut from five days down to half a day.

Ian Shanks, chairman  of pipeline repair company Radius Plus, says this type of system reduces the cost of installing a new asset or maintaining an existing one, with this and other technology, such as pipe­-lining, potentially cutting a third off the bills for utility companies.

Northern Gas Networks operations manager for construction services Richard Hynes-Cooper, who has overseen his company’s work with Radius Plus, says innovative technologies “improve safety, efficiency and customer service”.

He highlights a project in Whitehaven to replace a stretch of tier one gas pipe, which was cut from three months to six weeks. During this process, Hynes-Cooper is aware that the health and safety risks, which typically involve exposure to unearthed wires and pipes in open cut trenches, were dramatically reduced.

Not only do new technologies improve things for the utility. The “huge change” in the way streetworks are being done is benefitting customers, according to British Water director Paul Mullord. “A lot of people are doing things very differently to try and make it a better experience for their customers,” he says.

This includes better customer engagement, with residents being informed of when streetworks are set to take place and how long they will last. This is often done by post, but most utilities also offer updates online and via apps.

National Grid Gas and Wales & West Utilities are among those leading the way with digital streetworks engagement, according to Elgin chairman Shane O’Neill.

He says utilities have found this difficult because of their “legacy systems”, but spurred on by regulatory regimes encouraging innovation, they have introduced pages on their websites detailing when and where roadworks will take place.

“This is good practice,” says O’Neill, “And by having this information on their websites, it is saving each of them for every call they no longer need to take.”

He says both utilities and their contractors are making improvements to the way streetworks are carried out, not just in terms of customer engagement but also in terms of new technology. “The change may be slow,” he says, “but it is happening.”

Opinion: Bob Gallienne, Chief executive, National Joint Utilities Group

Streetworks are undertaken for four main reasons: safety; security of supply; to connect new customers or enhance existing customers’ supplies; or to divert underground equipment to allow major transport or regeneration projects to take place. Put simply, without streetworks the UK would not have access to the safe and reliable essential utility services that underpin so much of 21st century life.

Clearly, this creates disruption and we need to ask ourselves whether the industry is doing enough to communicate to the public why these works are needed, and whether we are doing enough to minimise the impact of these works on the nation’s productivity. These are just two of the key questions I have been grappling with since becoming chief executive of the National Joint Utilities Group.

Utility companies are major contributors to economic growth, but the extent of their investment in streetworks has never really been looked at in any detail. Streetworks and utilities are extensively regulated through the Department for Transport, local highway authorities and respective economic regulators. However, these complex arrangements reveal only a fragmented view of the total cost of streetworks.

Up until now, we have simply not had robust data. With this in mind, NJUG recently appointed PA Consulting to independently measure the cost of undertaking streetworks and model the estimated cost of possible legislative changes to the industry and to England and Wales. This econometric model will allow NJUG to work closely with the government and support policymaking with robust data. This information comes at a crucial time, especially with utilities building significant infrastructure.

PA Consulting’s preliminary findings make for fascinating reading. Based on data gathered from a cross-section of utility companies operating on different scales, within a mix of urban and rural areas across England and Wales and across the four major utility sectors (electricity, gas, water and telecommunications), the cost of streetworks in the financial year 2014/15 is estimated to be between £1.5-2 billion.

The approaches used in the modelling exercises have been extensively scrutinised to confirm their accuracy. The model itself has been reviewed by an independent academic, Michelle Baddeley, professor of Economics and Finance at University College London, who has its confirmed the validity and credibility.

The data indicates that in 2014/15 there were around 1.5 million works undertaken by utilities, although this is only a partial picture given that approximately half of all works are undertaken by highway authorities. These works equated to more than six million days of road occupation. It is this statistic that really brings home the need for utilities, contractors, and highway authorities to work together to deliver a step change in minimising road occupation and disruption.

I fundamentally believe that the most significant steps we can take to deliver on this objective is finding innovative ways of delivering streetworks and ensuring that utilities and highway authorities collaborate and co-operate more effectively. We have seen a number of promising case studies in both areas and one of NJUG’s primary responsibilities is in ensuring that the entire industry – utilities, contractors and others in the supply chain together with highway authorities – are fully informed about these examples.

Inevitably, streetworks are going to have a bigger and bigger impact on the nation’s roads. The Office for National Statistics predicts that the UK’s population will increase to above 76 million by 2045, and the Department for Transport expects traffic volume to increase by 43 per cent by 2040. We have significant pressures from increasing house building, which needs to be connected to utility services, and the government has pledged £100 billion for new infrastructure projects.

All of these are competing for space in a local  road network that has little or no room to expand. This is why we must work together better and deliver game-changing streetworks innovations.

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