South East Water (SEW) supplies essential water services to 2.3 million customers, managing a vast network across the south-east of England. With a mission to enhance service delivery, SEW has committed £433 million from 2020 to 2025 towards resource development, treatment works expansion, and infrastructure improvements. However, this investment requires extensive street work operations. In fact, SEW’s annual count of TTROs has already risen by over 43% since 2021.
The Challenge
SEW’s traditional street works management process was hampered by inefficiencies, including slow TTRO approvals and reliance on external contractors for costly CAD drawings.
SEW relied on their subcontractors for all traffic management planning, which resulted in a three to five day wait for every CAD drawing. Subsequently, SEW would prepare and submit the TTRO to the respective highway authority, where the approval process would last anywhere from two days to a month. Any necessary modifications would lead SEW back to their contractors for a new CAD drawing, causing significant delays and added expenses. This cumbersome process was time-consuming for all parties, incurred costs and hindered timely completion of vital infrastructure projects.
The Solution
In October 2023, SEW partnered with Causeway to enhance their street works management workflow by using Causeway one.network’s Plan Share. This solution enables them to plot street works and their associated traffic management plans on a digital map-based dashboard and submit them with all essential documentation directly to highway authorities inside the Causeway one.network platform.
Initially, SEW decided to roll out the platform for their East division, and so the Customer and Training team at Causeway one.network started by training the SEW East team on Plan Share, ensuring all team members were proficient in its use. They then initiated a working group with the Street Works team at West Sussex County Council (WSCC) to pilot this new approach.
SEW East and WSCC have now built a strong working relationship and transformed their collaborative process by using Plan Share to manage all SEW East TTRO submissions. The solution has enabled them to communicate quickly via chat and collaborate easily with a single shared view of SEW TTRO submissions in West Sussex.
"Plan Share has completely transformed street works management for us at South East Water. It has not only streamlined our processes, but also enhanced collaboration with West Sussex, resulting in significant reductions in TTRO approval times and cost savings. This efficiency enables us to complete projects more swiftly, ultimately delivering an improved service to our customers."
Trudi McLeod, Highways Manager, South East Water
The Results
The implementation of Plan Share has yielded remarkable results for both SEW and WSCC:
- 74% reduction in TTRO approval time: SEW East now receives TTRO approvals from WSCC in under 3 working days on average.
- Over 6 working days saved annually for WSCC: WSCC can now review, approve and publish a single SEW TTRO in just 25 minutes. With an average of 120 TTRO applications from SEW a year, the WSCC team is now saving over 6 working days annually.
- Permits published up to 96% faster: SEW permits are now published on Causeway one.network and Street Manager up to 96% faster.
- WSCC review SEW TTROs 50% quicker: Previously, it took WSCC 20 minutes to review each TTRO submitted by SEW, now it takes just 10.
- Zero CAD planning costs: By creating traffic management plans internally on Causeway one.network, SEW has removed subcontracting expenses for their East Division, leading to significant cost savings.
- WSCC plan admin time reduced from 30 minutes to 15: Since using Causeway one.network, WSCC is saving significant time drawing plans, resulting in a saving of 15 minutes per plan.
- Less than 7 minutes per TTRO for SEW: Instead of waiting up to 5 days for a CAD drawing, SEW can now generate a traffic management plan internally and submit the TTRO to WSCC for approval in under seven minutes.
- Increased visibility and transparency of SEW street works: Using Plan Share to create and submit TTROs means that all SEW East street works are now published on the public Causeway one.network map. This has improved visibility and transparency of SEW street works for WSCC residents and other works promoters operating in the area.
Lessons Learned
Training and on-boarding SEW and WSCC staff was instrumental to the success of the Plan Share implementation. The Causeway Customer and Training team worked closely with both street works teams over several weeks to ensure they were comfortable and confident using Plan Share to draw traffic management plans and submit, review and approve or reject TTRO submissions.
Data analysis from the start of the project compared to the end shows that the speed at which WSCC approved TTRO submissions significantly improved over time. Critical to keeping progress on track was regular training sessions; TTRO approval times were at their lowest during and shortly after training.
"Since partnering with South East Water (SEW) and implementing Plan Share, West Sussex County Council has significantly reduced the time spent reviewing SEW TTRO submissions. This is helping enhance efficiency and foster better collaboration between us for improved TTRO management. Plus, it’s helping us to deliver more accurate information for stakeholders and the public within our
county."Rachel Ried'l, TTRO & Technical Support Team Leader,
Highways, Transport & Planning, West Sussex County Council
Future plans & wider industry impact
The success of this initiative has paved the way for broader adoption. SEW is expanding this innovative approach to East Sussex and Kent County Councils, aiming to replicate the efficiency gains and collaborative success experienced with WSCC.
By transforming their processes, SEW and WSCC have set a new standard in TTRO management, demonstrating the power of digital solutions to enhance infrastructure development across the UK. This collaboration serves as a model for other utilities and highway authorities, showcasing the potential for digital innovation to streamline operations and deliver superior services to communities.
For further insight into how Causeway one.network can boost collaboration and speed up your TTRO management, get in touch.
