Construction experts at the University of Salford have been drafted in to help reduce the impact of Britain’s growing list of roadworks.
Postgraduate students will be working with Highways England and academics to recommend ways of planning motorway and other upgrades to produce quicker outcomes.
A two minute delay to every car journey is estimated to cost the equivalent of 1% of UK GDP. And the current roll-out of so-called ‘smart motorways’ has increased delays and public irritation.
The research is being backed with £35,000 from WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff Engineering Services in partnership with Highways England, which works closely with the School of Built Environment (SoBE) and has sponsored ten research projects at the University in the last two years.
The project will involve Dr Zeeshan Aziz and doctoral student Rana Qasim working closely with major infrastructure projects in the region, including Manchester Smart Motorways and the A556 scheme. It entails engagement with traffic management stakeholders including local councils, Manchester Airport, GMP, and traffic management contractors.
Dr Zeeshan Aziz, an expert in ‘intelligent construction’ in SoBE, said the project was both people and process-focussed.
“We will be looking across the piece at the key challenges – engineering, costings, logistics and stakeholder engagement.
“We will also look at processes, modelling and optimisation to scientifically analyse opportunities for improvements and consider how findings from one process can be replicated elsewhere.
Guidelines
The end outcome will be a tool that can provide a quantified basis of improvements and some hard guidelines for Highways England.
