Ofwat has released a third party report produced as a guide to the coordinated delivery of utility infrastructure – the document was published on the regulator’s website on 24th December.
First published in 2019, The Collaboration Handbook is an overview of how a cross-functional team identified and piloted a collaborative scheme of works as well as a practical guide for teams in local authorities and utilities.
In 2018 a cross-functional team from London Borough of Croydon, Thames Water, SGN, Fluxx and Atkins tasked themselves with a project to coordinate the delivery of infrastructure, ultimately reducing the number of highway disruptions.
The Collaboration Handbook, which was prepared for the London Borough of Croydon, is also intended to serve as a practical guide for teams in other local authorities and utilities.
While it has a specific focus of street works collaboration in London, the principles are transferable to other local authority areas.
This first version (V1) of the handbook is an output of a collaborative working initiative called the Croydon Infrastructure Coordination Pilot (CICP), delivered alongside the London Borough of Croydon (LBC) by partners – design consultancy Atkins and innovation consultancy Fluxx.
CICP was funded by TfL’s Lane Rental scheme and sanctioned by the Lane Rental Governance Committee (LRGC), including representatives from the major utilities, London Councils, TfL and the Department for Transport (DfT).
This version of the handbook is owned by London Borough of Croydon with contributions from the Greater London Authority (GLA). The GLA will be responsible for the handbook after publication of Version 1, which will include the full post-project appraisal of the pilot collaborative street works
project at Epsom Road, Croydon (see chapter 4.2). Future iterations of the handbook will be the responsibility of the GLA.
The introduction to the Handbook says collaborative street works projects often fail to get off the ground for a number of reasons including:
- There are limited channels of communication between organisations or within an organisation itself.
- Inability to securely share and analyse data between parties.
- There is a lack of buy-in from key individuals within the authority to secure investment and to secure sign-off on a collaborative project.
- There is insufficient resource to drive coordination between teams.
The Handbook is organised in the following chapters:
CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION TO THE HANDBOOK
An introduction to the pressure on our infrastructure and road network
CHAPTER 2 – WHY COLLABORATE?
Defining collaboration – the financial and socio-economic case for it
CHAPTER 3 – PREREQUISITES AND METHODOLOGY
The essential tools and tricks for implementing collaborative street works
CHAPTER 4 – CAPITAL WORKS
Working together for the upgrade and replacement of ageing infrastructure
CHAPTER 5 – MEASURING SUCCESS
Techniques for the pre-appraisal, monitoring and evaluation of collaborative efforts.
CHAPTER 6 – GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Planning for growth and the opportunities this presents for innovation
Click here to download The Collaboration Handbook in full