London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced a further £10m for his Infrastructure Coordination Service (ICS), which aims to reduce the delays caused by street works in the capital.
Mr Khan made the announcement at a meeting of the London Infrastructure Group, where he convened utility companies, telecoms, contractors, regulators and government representatives to discuss ‘how to go even further to co-ordinate works and reduce delays for road users’.
The ICS is a collaboration between City Hall, Transport for London (TfL) and utility and telecoms companies to co-ordinate ‘necessary’ works. It also undertakes long-term infrastructure planning and works to resolve infrastructure challenges impacting developers.
The £10m comes from TfL's Lane Rental Scheme, which charges utility companies and infrastructure providers a daily fee for digging up the busiest sections of London's roads at the busiest times.
City Hall said that with more than 160,000 works and interventions on London’s roads each year, the cash will go in part toward making co-ordination work part of utilities’ regular processes, so the ICS can explore new areas where there are tricky co-ordination problems.
It added that the ICS is also working in tandem with the new approach set out in TfL’s Network Operating Strategy (NOS), which uses data and intelligence in a similar way to ensure that works are evenly spread out to reduce their impact on journey times.
Carl Eddleston, TfL's director of network management and resilience, said: ‘We want to make sure Londoners can move around the capital as safely and efficiently as possible and we're working closely with the mayor and utility companies to ensure the capital's road network plays a full role in this.
‘Our pioneering Lane Rental scheme is supporting new technology and approaches to tackling congestion, including the ICS and our work with boroughs to reduce the impact of roadworks related congestion along bus routes.’
UK Power Networks CEO Basil Scarsella said: ‘The mayor’s Infrastructure Coordination Service is playing a crucial role helping us to collaborate with other infrastructure providers, and we look forward to scaling up this collaborative work together.'
