Flintshire County Council (FCC) is a local authority in North Wales, providing services for more than 156,000 people and managing over 1,227km of road network. Working in partnership with Conwy, Denbighshire, Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey and Wrexham, FCC is committed to delivering the outcomes outlined in both the North Wales Joint Local Transport Plan and LLwybr Newydd: the Welsh transport strategy. This includes delivering a more efficient transport network, which is resilient to both planned and unplanned events, and providing more effective public communications.
The Challenge
FCC process between 400 and 500 TTROs every year. This was always an incredibly manual and time-intensive procedure, involving Microsoft Word and drawing closures on map screenshots. Then 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic came along. More people started working from home creating pressure on utility services and the mass fibre infrastructure roll out began, causing a real shift in the types and amount of work being conducted.
This made it increasingly challenging to coordinate and manage TTROs and created an urgent need to increase planning efficiency at FCC.
The surge of activity on the roads has also increased the volume of queries Flintshire receives from the members of the public. To address this, the council set itself a goal of improving how they communicate with their constituents by implementing an easier, interactive online service.
"Causeway one.network saves me significant time when investigating disruption reports compared to a traditional desktop-based tool. I now have immediate access to detailed information about past and current works and can resolve queries far quicker”
Sam Tulley, Area Manager for Traffic, Street Works and Maintenance - Flintshire County Council
The Solution
Making TTRO management 63% faster
Using Causeway one.network to manage its TTROs, Flintshire’s Street Works team is now 63% more efficient, saving over 25 working days a year.
Technical Officer, Kate Prior-Jones , and the Street Works team at FCC can now plan and plot road closures and diversions, plus automatically generate any required documentation, all on one.network in just a few clicks. The platform provides greater visibility of everything happening on the road network and allows them to work from a single interface.
Technical Officer, Kate-Prior Jones: “ Causeway one.network has made our TTRO management so much faster and easier. The map gives us a shared view of all activity on the network allowing us to instantly spot conflicts which need to be rectified before approval.”
With this increased transparency and a streamlined workflow, the team is saving 25 minutes per TTRO and can ensure every traffic order is as efficient as it can be.
Reducing cancellations and costs with greater network visibility
The platform has also helped FCC improve planning and reduce the costly cancellation of works across the Flintshire network. Jack Mitchell, Streetscene Technical Officer for Service Delivery, uses Causeway one.network on a daily basis as part of his role within the Flintshire Commercial Services team.
Jack Mitchell, Streetscene Technical Officer for Service Delivery, Commercial Services: “When planning in works with the Supervisor, I use Causeway one.network to ensure the road space is clear and then book it in using the platform’s Traffic Management module. By doing this, it helps Flintshire Commercial Services to run smoothly and without delays, especially with a busy yearly program."
"Using Causeway one.network ensures that we are fully aware of the highway occupation that takes place in areas we intend to work, prior to allocating resources and ordering materials. The cancellation of works can be costly, and the system significantly reduces the need to cancel programmed works.”
The platform has proved especially useful for Jack and his team for planning the North Mid-Wales Trunk Road Agency cyclic maintenance works which occur all year round.
Digitalising public communications
Now that Flintshire publish all their roadworks and closures on Causeway one.network, they can be freely viewed on the interactive, user-friendly map by members of the public, councillors and external stakeholders.
The council have also embedded the Causeway one.network map on their website, making it even easier for constituents to locate the information they need.
Having all this information easily accessible online also enables internal teams to handle the queries they do receive without contacting the Street Works Team.
To further improve public communications, FCC is now training their Contact Centre team to use Causeway one.network so that they can respond to queries more accurately and efficiently.
Accelerating query resolutions and roadworks investigations by 50%
Sam Tulley, Area Manager for Traffic, Street Works and Maintenance, at FCC is often tasked with investigating public reports of roadworks causing disruption and delays on the network. Previously, using a desktop-based street-works register system, conducting a query into historic street works would take at least 5 minutes.
Now, with Causeway one.network’s Historical Map, this task is 50% more efficient. Sam can perform a historical search in less than 2 minutes. The data is returned on an easy map-based interface, displaying the location, dates and times of the work, who was responsible and what permits, and traffic management were in place.
Sam Tulley, Area Manager for Traffic, Street Works and Maintenance: “ Causeway one.network saves me significant time when investigating disruption reports compared to a traditional desktop-based tool. I now have immediate access to detailed information about past and current works and can resolve queries far quicker."
"Having access to unique job references also means my team and I can communicate more effectively about specific works with utilities and other stakeholders if problems arise or changes need to be made.”
Other benefits unlocked using one.network
FCC’s Inspectors are also benefitting from the platform. When out on the ground, they can use one.network to swiftly locate a work site, identify the works promoter and check any planned traffic management measures.
With this information, they can then contact the Site Supervisor and communicate any required changes to ensure a smooth-flowing network. Often, this will eliminate the need for a site-visit, saving time and un-necessary travel.
