The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced £10m funding to further reduce the delays caused by roadworks in the capital. through his award-winning Infrastructure

Coordination Service.

The Mayor made the announcement today at a meeting of the London Infrastructure Group at City Hall, where he convened utility companies, telecoms, contractors, regulators and government representatives to discuss how to go even further to coordinate works and reduce delays for road users.

The Infrastructure Coordination Service (ICS) is a collaboration between City Hall, TfL and utility and telecoms companies which coordinates necessary roadworks to cut delays. As part of its wider work, the ICS undertakes long term infrastructure planning and works to resolve infrastructure challenges impacting developers, all of which also reduce roadworks delay.

Since its launch in 2019, the service has saved London’s road users an additional 1,254 days of roadworks, working in collaboration with utilities, telecoms, contractors, boroughs, TfL developers and others. This is on top of the over 7,500 days saved annually through TfL and the London boroughs’ regular coordination. TfL already works with utilities and boroughs to coordinate roadworks and the ICS supports this activity by identifying places where utilities and others could work together more intensively on complicated projects that are harder to coordinate, often delivering higher levels of benefit per worksite.

There are more than 160,000 works and interventions on London’s roads each year, which can cause delays for drivers, bus users, cyclists and pedestrians. The aim of the ICS is to make their journeys easier and quicker.

Using data to coordinate roadworks happening in the coming years, the ICS enables companies to overlap so they can plan ahead and schedule their works for the same time, meaning the road doesn’t have to be dug up twice. Combined with TfL’s business as usual approach to roadworks coordination, thousands of days of disruption to Londoner’s journeys are being saved every year, while innovative partnerships with London Boroughs under TfL’s Bus SENSE initiative are more effectively co-ordinating roadworks applications on London bus routes, ensuring that bus journeys are not adversely impacted by knock-on delays caused by poorly planned and sequenced roadworks - reducing congestion and improving journey times and reliability for bus customers and other road users. 

The £10m of funding, from the Lane Rental Surplus fund, will go in part toward making coordination work part of utilities’ regular processes, so the ICS can explore new areas where there are tricky coordination problems to tackle.

The ICS approach is now being rolled out and scaled up independently by utility companies, which has saved a further 600 days of roadworks for Londoners.

The ICS is also working in tandem with TfL’s new approach set out in its project, the Network Operating Strategy (NOS), which uses data and intelligence in a similar way to ensure that roadworks are evenly spread out to reduce impact on journey times.  

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Roadworks, while often necessary, can cause frustrating delays for road users. This £10m investment will help to further reduce the delays and disruption caused by roadworks, by exploring new areas of innovation. City hall and TfL are working closely with the infrastructure companies to reduce road works, cut congestion and make London’s roads clearer for those who use them and build a better, more efficient city for all Londoners.

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, which allows us to charge utility companies and infrastructure providers a daily fee for digging up the busiest sections of London's roads at the busiest times, is supporting new technology and approaches to tackling congestion, including the Infrastructure Co-ordination Service and our work with boroughs to reduce the impact of roadworks related congestion along bus routes. We'll continue to work closely with boroughs and other partners across the capital to make it easier and safer than ever to travel around London.” 

Basil Scarsella, CEO of UK Power Networks said:  “UK Power Networks recognises the importance of minimising roadworks for Londoners as we undertake our critical work making sure we have the electricity infrastructure in place to support the city in years to come. 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.”

RAC Foundation Director Steve Gooding said: “London’s legacy of subterranean services all need care and maintenance to keep the city working, but with so many buried beneath the roads the traffic consequences need attention too if we’re going to keep the city moving, so we warmly welcome the work of the Mayor’s Infrastructure Co-ordination Service and today’s funding decision. Minimising disruption and ensuring good quality re-instatement are important for all road users.”

Michael Lloyd, FSB London Infrastructure Lead, at FSB London said: “The small business community reliant on the capital’s road network often highlight to FSB that the high levels of congestion on some London routes is of detriment to the efficient running of their businesses. FSB London members often feel frustrated by the perceived lack of co-ordination of roadworks between infrastructure and utility companies.

“Small businesses are the ‘heartbeat of London’ and they are an essential component to the economy of the capital. They need to feel and be supported.Congestion needs to be tackled and we are pleased to hear that the Mayor of London is announcing a scheme to reduce congestion caused by roadworks undertaken by utility companies and infrastructure providers in London.” Photo by U.S. Embassy London, Wikimedia commons.