Industry backs roadworks communication app

A number of leading players in the highways industry have backed a major new initiative to communicate roadworks information to the public.

National Grid Gas and Hertfordshire County Council are early adopters of Elgin's Communications Management App which enables works promoters to communicate roadworks information in real-time via Twitter, Facebook, mobile alerts and QR codes.

The initiative has been enabled by the creation of a national database roadworks.org which now covers over 90% of England and Wales and publishes over three million works per year.

For the first time across the streetworks industry there is a common communications platform which local highway authorities, utilities and their contractors can embed within their own services while retaining the wide syndication benefits of roadworks.org.

Suzanne Callington, stakeholder and customer commercial specialist, National Grid Gas commented: "Elgin's App has helped us improve stakeholder communication, reduce the number of customer service enquiries from the public and increase our customer satisfaction rating. All of which are central to National Grid Gas meeting its RIIO targets."

Andrew Hunt, Head of Innovation, Morrison Utility Services who conduct over 25% of the UK's roadworks on behalf of the leading utility companies, added: "Elgin's App is a complete step change in the way utilities communicate to the public. It is a huge advance in helping the utility sector to keep step with current social trends in information consumption."

Daniel Anderton of Ringway Hertfordshire's integrated transport control centre (ITCC) manager, commented: "If we want the public to consume and act upon our traffic and travel information it needs to be provided in easily digestible format, on a map that is intuitive to use and crucially operates on all mobile devices, so the public can access it at their convenience. Roadworks.org and the App tick all of those boxes."