Podcasts about national highways

Ben Gibbons and his colleagues at Circular11 are developing ways to add value to hard-to-recycle light plastics. They take packaging, and turn it into a lumber-equivalent, suitable for long term use as post and rail fencing. But to maintain tight loops of circularity, they needed to understand the supply chain they were targeting. National Highways... The post #329 Scaling Low Carbon Innovation – Engineering Matters Awards' winners episode first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In this episode, Camilla and Ruth are joined by Andrew Kidd, Director of Environmental Sustainability for the Lower Thames Crossing at National Highways. Andrew shares insights into his role leading National Highways' decarbonisation strategy for the Lower Thames Crossing. Together, they explore innovative approaches to designing low-carbon infrastructure and its impact on sustainability in large-scale projects.

Gugs Mlhungu discusses the condition of our national roads with Warren Tucker, our resident motor enthusiast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Innovation Deciphered! In this engaging episode, host Tim Fitch is joined by Tim Mole from Fosroc to delve into the fascinating world of innovation in construction chemicals. Discover Fosroc's structured approach to innovation management and hear real-world examples of how client collaboration drives transformative product development. From rapid road repair solutions that significantly reduce traffic disruption to cutting-edge runway sealants ensuring airports remain operational, Fosroc's story is one of ingenuity and customer-centric progress. Tim Mole shares his unconventional career journey, starting from humble beginnings and growing into a 27-year passion for solving complex challenges in the construction industry. The conversation explores Fosroc's innovation pipeline, the rigorous validation process for new products, and how feedback from key stakeholders, such as National Highways, has shaped market-leading solutions. Looking to the future, the episode examines sustainability trends in the sector, including Fosroc's carbon-neutral products and the balance between environmental responsibility and maintaining site productivity. Join us for this insightful discussion as we unpack the processes, challenges, and forward-looking strategies shaping the construction chemicals industry. Stay curious, stay inspired, and keep deciphering innovation with us.   #InnovationDeciphered  #ConstructionChemicals #Sustainability #InnovationManagement

National Highways has adopted clear net zero targets: its own operations will be carbon free by 2030; those of contractors on its roads by 2040; and of road users by 2050. The challenge will be meeting those goals, while also fulfilling its mission of getting drivers where they need to go, safely and efficiently. The... The post #299d Highways UK Live – The Journey to Net Zero and Resilience first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Step into the heart of an ancient woodland as we explore Ashenbank Wood, a Site of Special Scientific Interest rich in history and teeming with wildlife. Woodland has stood here for centuries, but this haven is under threat. A proposed tunnel project, the Lower Thames Crossing, could harm the irreplaceable ecosystem and ancient trees here. Jack, leader of our woods under threat team, explains what's at stake and the challenges and strategies involved in trying to maintain a delicate balance between development and nature. A decision on whether the project goes ahead is due from Government in May 2025. We also meet estate manager Clive, who delves into Ashenbank Wood's history, tells us more about why ancient woodland is so important and shows us the unusual approach of strapping deadwood to trees. Don't forget to rate us and subscribe! Learn more about the Woodland Trust at woodlandtrust.org.uk Transcript You are listening to Woodland Walks, a podcast for the Woodland Trust presented by Adam Shaw. We protect and plant trees for people to enjoy, to fight climate change and to help wildlife thrive.  Adam: Today I am at a site of Special Scientific Interest in the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is teeming with extraordinary wildlife, and I'm told you can stand in the shadows of gnarled veteran trees and even spot some shy dormice, rare bats, and woodland wildflowers if you're there at the right time of year. But it is also a site under threat. National Highways propose to build a new tunnel linking Essex and Kent under the River Thames, and many feel that that will create a threat to the trees and wildlife here. So I've come not just for a walk, but to chat to experts and the first is the man responsible for coordinating the Woodland Trust response to big infrastructure projects and to chat to him about how infrastructure and nature can live hand in hand.  Jack: So I'm Jack Taylor, I'm the programme lead for the woods under threat team at the Woodland Trust.  Adam: Brilliant. And we're at Ashenbank Woods?  Jack: We are indeed.  Adam: Good, OK, sorry, yeah *laughs* I know I should sound more sure, we are at Ashenbank Woods.  Jack: I think its full title might be Ashenbank Woods SSSI, site of special scientific interest.  Adam: Oh right yes, yes. And we're going to see a bit later a colleague of yours, Clive, who will tell us more about the details of this woodland. But the reason why I wanted to talk to you first as we walk through, what is a lovely, actually dappled, dappled bit of woodland here is about your role in protecting places like this from development because, so what, what is your job?  Jack: Yeah, it's beautiful. That's a good question *laughs* what is my job? I I suppose the the base of it, the basis of it, the foundation really is about trying to protect ancient woods and ancient and veteran trees from forms of development, but also from other threats outside of that as well. So non-development threats like air pollution, pests and diseases, deer overbrowsing. Most of my work does focus on working within the development sector and trying to protect against those development threats.  Adam: Right, and you're the project lead.   Jack: Yeah.  Adam: When I first saw that, I thought you meant you're the project lead for this woodland, but you are not. You are the project lead for all development threatening woodlands throughout the UK. This is an extraordinary, I mean that's quite a job.  Jack: Yeah, it's it's a lot. There are a lot of threats to have to deal with across the UK because we're always building always sort of growing as a nation. We always need sort of new forms of infrastructure and new sort of housing. We recognise that. But all of that does come with the added impact of having threats on our ancient woods and ancient and veteran trees, so we have a team of myself and my my wonderful team of four as well.  Adam: Alright. Yeah, it's not big.  Jack: No, it's not big, but they they are enthusiastic and they're great at what they do.  Adam: So this is quite a political area because we've got a new government which has promised to improve lots of things, get the country working, build lots of homes. I think, I think the Prime Minister only recently talked about, you know, we're going to get spades in the ground, we're going to be doing stuff. Well, is it your job to stop all of that, I mean, or how do you balance what needs to be done for the country and what needs to be done to protect woodlands?  Jack: Yeah. So it's so none of this is really about stopping development from from happening and we we have to be sort of quite clear that that's not what we're set out to do as an organisation. It's about trying to ensure that where development is happening. It's not going to impact on our most important and our most valuable woods and trees and that's why we do have a focus specifically on ancient woodland, but and then also on ancient and veteran trees as well, because we know that for the most part, there are lots of really valuable woods and wooded and wooded habitats and trees that are plenty sort of valuable and important. But we know that ancient words and ancient and veteran trees are likely to be our most important sites. We have to focus on protecting those. So we do have to object to some developments where we think the harm is gonna be too great, but we're never really looking to stop them from happening, unless the harm is too great.  Adam: OK. Which way?  Jack: Umm, I think right.   Adam: OK. So one of the things I've noticed before, I mean, when I was following the HS2 debate, was politicians were going ‘it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. We'll cut this down, we're going to replace them. I tell you what, we'll do you a deal, we'll plant two for every one we cut down.' On the face of it that sounds reasonable?  Jack: OK. Yeah, not to us.   Adam: Why not?   Jack: Well, I think if you're, if you're looking at ancient woodlands and ancient and veteran trees, you're looking at something that is an irreplaceable habitat. There is no sort of recreating that habitat in in one space again, once it's been lost and the reason for that is these things take centuries to evolve and develop to create those sort of vital links between animals, plants, fungi, the soils as well. So ancient woodlands are especially important for their soils. So you can't really just take those soils and put them elsewhere because once that happens you completely disturb the relationships that have built up over centuries within them. And ancient and veteran trees, so you're talking about trees that for the most part are going to be centuries years old. How do you how do you replace centuries of development creating these wonderful sort of niche habitats for different parts of our ecosystems?   Adam: And is it, you said quite clearly that it's not your job or the Trust's job just to stop development, just to sort of blanket go, ‘hey, stop building' so is it about going, ‘don't build here' or is it about saying, ‘if you're gonna build here, this is how to do it with the least amount of impact'? What's the sort of your approach?  Jack: Yeah. In some cases it is about saying not, not building here. It depends what we're dealing with, I suppose so it's different if you're dealing with, say, housing developments or leisure facilities as opposed to something like rail infrastructure or road infrastructure, which is quite linear in nature, so they can only really go in one place to deliver its purpose, whereas housing is not as locationally dependent.  Adam: I see. So you feel you've got a better argument if it's a housing project, cause you can go, ‘put it somewhere else', but the train journey from A to B has to sort of go through this area. You're you're on a loser there are you?  Jack: Well, sometimes, but there are there are ways of of getting around sort of kind of impact. I mean it doesn't have to go absolutely sort of A to B in one way. You can think very carefully about the design to try and minimise impact on ancient woods. You can also look at alternative solutions, engineering solutions like tunnelling for example, so HS2 is a good example of that. The Phase One section which is going ahead between London and Birmingham, they actually put in a tunnel under the Chilterns, which saved about 14 hectares of woodland saved these three really good prime areas of ancient wood. And of course the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty came into that in a way, and they were trying to protect that also. But that was one solution to stop wildlife and nature being harmed.  Adam: Right. So that's, was this, were you involved with that?   Jack: Yeah, yeah.   Adam: Amazing. So how difficult was that to get that that project through and try to avoid the destruction of all that woodland?  Jack: Well, a lot a lot of destruction still is happening from High Speed 2. So about 20 hectares of ancient woodland has been destroyed at this stage now. A lot of the sort of preparation works for the Phase One section, that London to Birmingham bit, are now complete. So it it was difficult, but it it the way in which we were involved is we really brought ancient woodland to the table and put it at the forefront of considerations and and gave it a voice I suppose. It's not that it wasn't being looked at at all, but not nearly to the degree that we thought it needed to be looked at. And so we sort of kind of introduced that idea of well look, there's ancient woodland here, you need to be thinking carefully about the design and, you know, you think you're talking about halving the impacts on ancient woodlands from from our sort of kind of involvement and involvement of other conservation organisations in there as well.  Adam: So a lot of it is trying to say, to make the argument, but also to raise the profile of that argument,   Jack: Sure.  Adam: To bring, population and say this is actually a loss. You know, cutting it down is is a loss. So how much harder or easier has it got for you to make that argument?   Jack: Well, do you know, interestingly, I I would probably say that projects like High Speed 2, where there is such a big argument around the ancient woodland has raised the profile of ancient woodland itself. That's one of the sort of silver linings of that project for us, it's put sort of ancient woodland on the map in terms of habitat that needs to and is worthy of protection. So I think a lot of people now understand ancient woodland a bit better and what it is. There's still lots of awareness to do, you know, people just think of ancient woodlands as bluebells, big large oaks and it's not quite there. I mean, they're all so kind of varied in their nature and geographically across the country, but it's got people thinking about them.  Adam: So that was something of a success, although I know more complicated than just ‘yes, we won that'.   Jack: Sure, yeah.   Adam: Any areas you feel you really lost that, you know, keep you up at night, you go, that was that was a failure and you know, we've lost that woodland?  Jack: Yeah. I mean, there've been, there've been some over the years. Back in 2012 a a large quarry was built on an area of woodland called Oaken Wood in Kent, probably taking about out about 30 to 35 hectares of ancient woodland which is massive, massive amounts, I mean, you're talking about in the region it's like 40 to 50 football fields and and and we're actually dealing with another threat to that woodland from an expansion of that same quarry. So yeah, you know that that one is one that gnaws gnaws at us, is that, you know, we don't want to see that happening anymore.  Adam: Are you getting more optimistic that you know the public are more on your side that this is at least something that plays in policymakers' decisions now?  Jack: I I actually think the public have always really been on our side. I think if you ask the the general public, they would probably say to you, we do not want to see ancient woodlands subject to any loss or deterioration, whatever the cause.  Adam: Yeah, I think you're right. But they also say, yeah, but we like cheaper housing and want better transport links so.  Jack: Yeah. Well, I mean the Lower Thames Crossing, which is going to be affecting this site that we're in now, Ashenbank Wood is sort of a prime example of that the the intention of that project is to relieve traffic congestion on the existing Dartford Crossing.  Adam: Which I think actually I can hear in my headphones this, although we are, I mean it looks beautiful, there's quite a lot of background traffic noise. So we can't be that far away actually from from transport, from big roads. So explain to me you say this this particular site, Ashenbank Woods which is a site of Special Scientific Interest, so it's not just any old woods, this is a really special place, is under threat. What is the threat here?   Jack: So the threat here is partially there will be some loss to the wider SSSI ancient woodland in the area when you're losing sort of kind of, Ashenbank Wood itself is not going to be subject to much loss, although there is a cycle route diversion going through the woods that might impact on some of its special features.  Adam: Oh one second just, we've we've just turned off the path, we're just, oops crawling under some trees. I don't quite know why we've come, we we seem to have chosen the most difficult route. Well, it is beautiful because we've come off the path right into a magic dell.   Jack: There we go.  Adam: Oh, look, there's obviously some, I think, probably some kids have built a sort of camp, tent out of fallen branches. OK, so sorry so I understand that this is under threat from development, the the development plan though is what? What are they trying to do here?  Jack: So so what they're doing is they're building a new crossing further to the east of Dartford Crossing, but that's going to involve connecting...  Adam: A river crossing, a tunnel?  Jack: Yes a river crossing.   Adam: But it's a tunnel.   Jack: Yeah, it's a tunnel.  Adam: Why would that? That's that's great, surely?  Jack: Well, the tunnel goes under the Thames. But in order to connect the A2/M2 to the to the sort of tunnel portal, they're going to be going through a lot of ancient woodlands as a result. So just down the way Clay Lane Wood is one that's going to be heavily impacted by by the proposals, you know several hectares of ancient woodland loss there, but in terms of our wood itself, you're you're gonna have impacts on some of the veteran trees from some of the works that are required in here. But you're also sort of increasing the traffic around the area on A2/M2. And as you can hear, there's already quite loud background noise from the traffic. If that becomes louder, it further reduces the suitability of this habitat for a lot of species.  Adam: Right. So what are your, what are you doing?  Jack: Well we're campaigning against it for one thing. So we've been campaigning against it since 2016, trying to bring those bring those sort of impacts down as far as possible. At this point in time, I would probably say that it's unfeasible, that it could go ahead without causing loss or damage to ancient woodland and veteran trees, and that's something that we have to oppose as an organisation. So we're working with other environmental NGOs, conservation orgs like RSPB, Buglife, Wildlife Trust, CPRE to to oppose this scheme.  Adam: So, and if people want to keep an eye on the sort of campaigns you're running, and the sort of live issues around the country, where can they get that information?  Jack: They can go along to woodlandtrust.org.uk/campaigns and they'll be able to find out about what we're doing in terms of campaigning for protection of ancient woods and veteran trees. We've got a really great campaign at the moment, all about protecting ancient and veteran trees and we're stood in in front of one of these at the moment, we call them Living Legends.   Adam: Right OK, what a lovely link, because I I was gonna say you've brought me to a stand. It looks like a sculpture this, so what, so let me just briefly describe this. I mean, it's a hollowed out tree. There's, it almost looks like there's 3 or 4 bits of different trees supporting each other, and you can go hide in the middle. I mean, there's, I'd, I couldn't spread my arms in the middle, but I mean almost, you know, there's probably, I don't know, 4 or 5 foot wide in the middle. It's most extraordinary. What is this? What's going on here?  Jack: So I would probably say this is an ancient ash tree. As trees sort of grow older, they they have to sort of kind of allow their heartwood to to rot away because that's what keeps them sort of stable and secure and in doing so that creates really important habitat for wildlife. And so this is what has happened to this ash tree effectively, its heartwood has sort of rotted away, it's still got this kind of all important surrounding ripewood to be able to support the rest of the tree.  Adam: That's extraordinary. So the the, the, the wood at the centre of the tree, the heartwood has gone?  Jack: Yes, yeah, yeah, cause it it's not it's not really useful for for trees at that sort of point. It's it's no longer the part of the wood that's carrying the sort of the water and nutrients up the tree. That's what the sort of outer ripewood does. So the heartwood decays away as they as they grow older.  Adam: And that's just ash trees is it?  Jack: No, that's that's pretty much all. Yeah.  Adam: How ignorant am I? OK, fine. OK. I didn't realise that that happens to all trees. And it looks like that would cause an instability problem, but this looks actually fairly fairly stable, it's fine.  Jack: It it's it's actually it's actually the other way they do it because it allows them to remain as stable as possible. And I I mean this one it doesn't, it doesn't look in the best sort of structural condition does it, but they need to do that for their sort of physiological condition because if they have if they're trying to support too much sort of heartwood then it affects the trees energy balances. And I mean that there's actual sort of scientific things here between the kinetic and the potential energy in a tree and why why they do this but all old trees do it and in turn it creates this amazing habitat, so you can see all these little holes in the in the sort of kind of inside wood and the decaying wood as well, where insects have sort of burrowed into it, where birds would be, woodpeckers, you know would be would be accessing that as well.   Adam: Yeah. Amazing   Jack: Amazing structures, aren't they?  Adam: And so I'm going to meet now, one of the people responsible for actually managing woods such as Ashenbank, and he's waiting for me a bit further into the woods.  Clive: OK, I'm Clive, Clive Steward, I'm one of the estate managers for the Woodland Trust working in the South East.  Adam: So what is important about this site? What makes this wood special?  Clive: What makes this site special is that it's ancient woodland or partly ancient woodland, but it's also managed as a wood pasture or has been managed as a wood pasture in the past, and because of that habitat it has lots and lots of old trees and old trees is very important in terms of what they support in terms of dead and decaying habitats.  Adam: Right, so well we're standing by this extraordinary ash tree, I mean, it's extraordinary that there's an ash tree at all, given ash dieback, but it's extraordinary for all sorts of other reasons. But is ash a big part of this woodland?  Clive: In terms of its name, Ashenbank, you you think it should be but but it's it is a component of the site but it's not, the majority species is not ash.   Adam: What is this site then?  Clive: So mostly sycamore and we're in the northern part of Ashenbank where we've got a lot of sycamore and we've got some really big old sweet chestnuts, but there are lovely old oak trees and hornbeam trees.  Adam: Right. And so when we talk about ancient woodland, it's always worth, I suppose, explaining a bit about what we mean because clearly will go, well, that's old. But old for trees can be a whole different sort of thing. So how, what, what, what do you mean when you're talking about ancient woodlands?  Clive: Well, when we say ancient woodland ancient woodland is defined as areas which have been permanently wooded since 1600AD. That's the sort of the the the date.  Adam: Oh right, I didn't realise it was that precise.  Clive: Well, it well, yes, it's roughly when big old estates used to produce maps, so they discovered paper and started drawing maps of what they owned but prior so before this this, the assumption is that if it's wooded then it would have been wooded ever since the Ice Age retreated but managed by mankind for for thousands of years.  Adam: So we're, we're assuming actually that ancient woodland is all it's probably been here since the Ice Age?  Clive: Yes. Yeah.  Adam: So that's why I mean that's it's worth I think pausing on that because it's why when we're talking about ‘oh, we'll have to destroy a bit of woodland for a tree, for a road' sorry, we're talking about taking away a bit of the landscape, which has been there since the Ice Age probably. So that's quite a big deal to have done that.  Clive: Yeah, yeah. It is. It is. Yeah. The the other part of Ashenbank, which is the bit we're in is a more recently wooded area, probably about 200 years old. I have a a map here which is not good for a podcast, but I can show you a map.  Adam: Go on go on, we can describe this. Hold on. I'll hold the microphone and you can describe what we're seeing. So go on, yes.  Clive: So we have a a map here of Ashenbank Wood dating from 1797, which shows the woodland it used to be. I have another map showing the wood as it is today. So here's a map from a couple of years ago, but we're we're actually up here, which in the 1797 map shows fields. And now, now, now it's woods. So so basically, what's happened this Ashenbank used to be owned by Cobham Hall, which is a big estate to the east of Halfpence Lane, so this used to be partly of Cobham Hall Estate and in 1790, as many of these big old estates houses used to do, they used used they they employed a landscape architect to make their their grounds nicer as it were. So it wasn't Capability Brown, but it was a chap called Humphrey Repton who worked on this site from 1790 to about 1880, when he died 1818 when he died. And he landscaped the estate and the view from the house over to here looking west to what is now Ashenbank Wood was obviously important to him. So they actually planted a lot of these big old chestnuts which we walked past, which date from 200 years ago.  Adam: Which is very nice and we often hear about cutting trees down and looking at old maps going ‘oh, we've lost all that wood', here's an example of the reverse to actually that's a good nature story.  Clive: Yeah, yeah, definitely it is. Yes. As you get older, as they get older, these trees there are microhabitats which develop rot pockets, branches fall off, they they rot, big holes develop and that that's these microhabitats which are home to what's called saproxylic species.   Adam: OK, that's a new word, saproxylic?  Clive: Saproxylic. So saproxylics are are basically insects and beetles and flies which only exist in dead and decaying wood. So if these big old trees weren't around, they've got nowhere to live.  Adam: Right, which is why it's useful to have deadwood on the ground. It's not so, it looks untidy, but actually that's often the richest place.  Clive: Indeed. Yeah, yes, but often, but often these insects and beetles are actually in the living tree, not in the in the horizontal, dead and dying stuff. And it's the living trees, which are are why this habitat is so important.  Adam: But I thought you said you said they're living in the living trees, but but saproxylic means they're living in the dead trees?  Clive: But within these big old trees, there are these rot holes and pockets and little microhabitats within the tree...  Adam: Yes, which are dead and that's where they live?   Clive: Where they live yeah that's right.  Adam: Right OK. Yeah, very interesting. OK, very interesting. Now, there's also, I knew I was told, but I'm completely confused by, an idea that I'm told that goes on here of strapping deadwood to live trees. Did I did I misunderstand that?  Clive: No, no, you you didn't misunderstand it. No.   Adam: OK and you're going to show me where this is ?  Clive: Yep. Shall we shall we go, we'll we'll walk there, have a look.  Adam: Alright. Brilliant. So you've taken me to this tree, a very substantial tree, but next to it, this is the a bit of, what, you better explain, because this is really odd and I don't really understand what I'm looking at.  Clive: Right. Well, going back to 1999 when High Speed One was being built, they took out three hectares of Ashenbank Wood along with lots of other woodland in the area. And fortunately, somebody had the idea of of suggesting that we could save some of those big trees they felled and reerecting them against living trees to help them degrade and and become part of the habitat.  Adam: So I mean to describe this, we've got a very big tree. What sort of tree is this?  Clive: So you've got a big, big oak tree.  Adam: That's a big oak, and next to it is 6, 12, I don't know, 30 foot, 40 foot high dead tree, bit of bark. But it's it's not like a small, it's a 40 foot bit of bark which you have propped onto the living tree. Why is it better to have done that than just to leave it on the ground?  Clive: Well, it's about these microhabitats. So I mean, it's not just propped up it's actually strapped to it, so it's actually quite secure.  Adam: It is secure, that's y your health and safety hat on.  Clive: We had to make sure it was strapped up, but vertical dead or decaying wood is equally as important as horizontal, dead and decaying wood.  Adam: OK. Is it different? What, does it do different things?  Clive: The wood doesn't but it attracts different insects and species so that that that's why so. But in most in most woodlands you'll see deadwood as being felled trees which are lying or windblown. You don't often see dead vertical trees.  Adam: I've never seen that.  Clive: Well, they're often well, they're often felled and taken out for firewood or something but they are important as as a sort of microhabitat for these saproxylics. That that's purely why.  Adam: So the saproxylics which are insects which live on deadwood prefer, some prefer the high rise living of the vertical tree rather than the low level bungalow type living. But what what sort of, do you do, don't worry if you don't know, but do you know which insects prefer living vertically?   Clive: I I don't know that.  Adam: You don't. Somebody will, somebody will.  Clive: Yeah somebody will. But if you look at that tree, you'll see that it's a there's a there's a U-shaped crook 2/3 way up and in that there's there's a there's a hole which has probably got water in it. So water gathers from rain and that's that that little microhabitat will be, something will live in it. And if that was horizontal, it wouldn't be there.  Adam: Right, yes, yes. Well that I think this must be, I mean, we've been doing this for a few years. I've never seen that. So that is amazing. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. So I know that the history of this site goes back quite a long way, not just the natural history, but the human history as well, and am I right in saying there's quite quite a lot of sort of Bronze Age heritage here?  Clive: Well, we've got a Scheduled Ancient Monument which has been dated to between 2000 and 1500 BC, which is a big burial mount and it is scheduled and it's, you know, English Heritage monitor it and we have to make sure it's free of trees and it's there to see.  Adam: Right. Wow. And it's interesting you talk about it's there to see because we came and parked in the Woodland Trust car park. Free parking, as is normal in Woodland Trust places, first time though a full car park. We are here midweek during the day. I was surprised to see it's full so talking about visitors, this is clearly a, I mean have I just come at a weird time, have they all come to see the Woodland Trust podcast being made, it's right, it's a popular site. That always feels like contention to me because I know you want to encourage people to come, on the other hand, coming in a sort of, destroys a bit of what we see. How much of a problem are the level of visitors?  Clive: Well, we basically have a path network through Ashenbank Wood which we maintain, we mow, we make sure it's open and safe. So most people walk on those those paths which steers people around the the wood, as it were, so and we we don't stop people from walking off the path but most people don't cause it's, you know, nettles or brambles or whatever. It's difficult to do.  Adam: Right, yes. And keeping dogs on the lead and everything. You've been with the Trust for a long time, haven't you, really. What sort of change have you seen in the the the debate around the natural world in your time here?  Clive: That's a big question.  Adam: Have you, I mean, sort of, it assumes you have seen a change, you might not have seen a change. I mean I the reason I ask it is because it feels to me it's gone up the political agenda, that it's not just, you know, people dismissively talking about crazy tree huggers and let them onto their own thing. It's become more mainstream. Do you think that that's it's become more optimistic, do you think it's become more pessimistic, do you think, you you know, it's become more informed, I suppose?  Clive: Well, I think there's a growing recognition that ancient woodland is a special habitat, but it hasn't quite gone far enough to get total protection. But I think there's a growing realisation that ancient woodland is special and we need to look after it. And I think the politicians probably do understand it, but maybe can't quite make that move to legislate against total protection.  Adam: Yeah. And I think that's part of the Living Legend campaign that the Woodland Trust is organising, isn't it?  Clive: Definitely is. Yeah. Yeah, very much so.  Adam: Well, there were two websites we talked about today. So if you want to get involved in a local campaign, search for ‘Woodland Trust campaigns' and you can find out more about the attempts to get better legal protection for ancient and veteran trees by searching for the Living Legends campaign and of course I hope you get a chance to visit Ashenbank Woods yourself. So until next time, happy wandering.  Thank you for listening to the Woodland Trust Woodland Walks. Join us next month when Adam will be taking another walk in the company of Woodland Trust staff, partners and volunteers. And don't forget to subscribe to the series on iTunes or wherever you are listening. And do give us a review and a rating. If you want to find out more about our woods and those that are close to you, check out the Woodland Trust website. Just head to the visiting woods pages. Thank you. 

In 2024, National Highways completely closed parts of the M25, London's orbital motorway. This blockage in the arterial system of the UK economy wasn't a mistake. Instead, it was an example of meticulously planned surgery, performed by experts. In the previous episode of this mini-series, recorded live at Highways UK, we saw how data is... The post #299c Highways UK Live – Next Generation Asset Management first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The A3 southbound carriageway will be closed between Petersfield & Horndean from 9pm tonight (Friday, 25 October) until 6am on Monday, 28 October.  It's the second full weekend closure of the same stretch of road for National Highways to carry out resurfacing work. Our roving reporter Jo Gray, who works for the organisation, interviewed Project Manager Joe Cairns to find out more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A group of neighbours have criticised a housing association after being told to remove garden furniture used as a 'wellbeing hub'.Orbit Housing owns properties in Hopeville Avenue, Broadstairs and says the seating is a trip hazard and a misuse of a communal area. Hear from one of the residents who says gathering with friends is good for their mental health.Also in today's podcast, staff at a Kent prison have revealed the impact of overcrowding as 1,100 more inmates are released early across England and Wales.The government has launched a review to look at tougher punishments outside of jail to try and tackle the issue.The M25 is back open after a huge lorry fire closed part of the motorway in Kent for around 30 hours. One of the tunnels at the Dartford Crossing is also back open after a spillage meant it had to be resurfaced. We've had an explanation from National Highways.An Ashford man says he's 'sick and tired' of land outside his house being over run with weeds.Andrew Baynes has lived at the property in Newlands for 24 years and claims the county council won't clear the area - despite regular calls over a number of years. Hear from him and the response from KCC.A Chatham nurse who was told the pain she was suffering was 'all in her head' has taken to socials to share her struggles with endometriosis.Nicole Scott was finally told she had the condition after fighting for a year to get answers.A footballer who was racially abused by a Gillingham fan last season has spoken out about the impact it had.Omar Bogle was playing for Newport County when someone in the crowd made an offensive gesture towards him. He's part of the EFL's Together Against Racism campaign.A group of women, including former MP Dame Tracey Crouch, who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for charity have been to Maidstone hospital to see what the money they raised has been spent on.£150,000 was donated to Breast Cancer Kent for a machine that can do a mammogram on samples in the operating theatre.And in sport, Gillingham will be hoping to end their losing streak as they host Newport County later.Four defeats in a row have left the Gills sixth in the league two table.

This is the podcast for you if you're at Highways UK and want to hear a bit of behind the scenes chat about what you might have missed, or if you're unable to make it to Birmingham's NEC but want to feel like you're here.Paul Hutton and Adrian Tatum are your trusted guides to the event where you'll hear from National Highways CEO Nick Harris about RIS3, funding and planning and how he's coped with some disappointment this year.These programmes are brought to you thanks to the support of AGD and Traffic Group Signals, Q Point, SRL, Westcotec and SWARCO.Paul and Adrian give their take on the new Future of Roads Minister Lillian Greenwood as she updated us on her role, and then about some must-attend sessions on Thursday at the show.There's also a birthday party with Clearview Intelligence, the latest on collaboration with the Traffic Group and a fascinating chat with SWARCO's UK MD on what the industry wants during this time of uncertainty.Oh, and Paul gets a beer.Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

The UK's biggest highways and transport show of the year takes place next week at the NEC in Birmingham, and Highways Voices is your must-listen place to find out more about it.These programmes are brought to you thanks to the support of AGD and Traffic Group Signals, Q Point, SRL, Westcotec and SWARCO.In this programme you'll hear from organiser Claudia Davidson about, among other things, the big name industry leaders speaking at the event and the range of theatres and exhibitors involved. Talking of exhibitors, marketing expert Helen Blood gives you advice on how to maximise footfall to your stand and tells you how to get some free marketing advice.We also hear from Q Point, Yunex Traffic, SRL and Clearview Intelligence about what they're showing off on their stands. You'll also hear how you can enjoy networking, food and drink at SRL's Walkabout Party, and join Clearview's 50th birthday celebrations.Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!We will be bringing you podcasts featuring one-to-one interviews with key speakers such as Nick Harris, CEO of National Highways, with exhibitors and thought leaders on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of Highways UK week. Join us from the NEC with podcasts every day at 4pm. If you're at Highways UK, it's a trusted guide to your event experience, and if you can't make it, you'll get a flavour of what's going on. Don't miss it!

In this episode Bishop & Taylor discuss the collapse of ISG, the rise and sale of Fox Brothers, and National Highways' trial of graphene-enhanced asphalt.

In Episode 42, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is re-joined by Davin Crowley-Sweet, Chief Data Officer at National Highways. After Davin's first appearance almost 2 years ago (still the most listened-to episode of all time) they discuss what's unfolded since valuing their data as an asset and the failings of the D&A industry, which includes; Why CDOs are playing musical chairs The language of business is finance and what that means for dataMaking data an asset class in its own right Why your job is to create clarity from ambiguity Recognising the difference between conflict and tension Why data professionals hide too much behind technical skills Putting a valuation on your data asset and the benefits of doing so Why the valuation is merely a means to an end The difference between valuation, value, benefits and monetisationWhy being an enabler may provide good benefits but won't capitalise on the value of the data The relationship between valuing your data asset and capital allocation How valuing the data asset has changed the business model How data people create new meanings from words that already exist and wonder why they're being misunderstood Why it's easier to make a data team business literate than it is to make an entire business data literateWhy you don't need a ‘data culture' Why there's a fear of speaking about failure in the D&A industry Why creating a strategy was the biggest failure of his career Why earning trust and emotional commitment of the organisation is critical to successData is hard because the job exists to challenge senior leaders' belief systems Why “you're mental” if you think technology will fix that problem Why the future skillset of the CDO is more aligned to psychologists and philosophers What you should do today as a D&A professional if you want to make a differenceThanks to our sponsor, Data Literacy Academy.Data Literacy Academy is leading the way in transforming enterprise workforces with data literacy across the organisation, through a combination of change management and education. In today's data-centric world, being data literate is no longer a luxury, it's a necessity.If you want successful data product adoption, and to keep driving innovation within your business, you need to start with data literacy first.At Data Literacy Academy, we don't just teach data skills. We empower individuals and teams to think critically, analyse effectively, and make decisions confidently based on data. We're bridging the gap between business and data teams, so they can all work towards aligned outcomes.From those taking their first steps in data literacy to seasoned experts looking to fine-tune their skills, our data experts provide tailored classes for every stage. But it's not just learning tracks that we offer. We embed a deep data culture shift through a transformative change management programme.We take a people-first approach, working closely with your executive team to win the hearts and minds. We know this will drive the company-wide impact that data teams want to achieve.Get in touch and find out how you can unlock the full potential of data in your organisation. Learn more at www.dl-academy.com.

Bishop & Taylor discuss this year's tide of merger & acquisition activity, the appointment of Pete Redfern at Travis Perkins and National Highways' footbridge design competition. But they start with an update on last episode's discussion on AdBlue.

This week on Highways Voices we talk about better traffic management using a new pre-emptive traffic management system being pioneered by AECOM and Derbyshire County Council.Lee Street, Head of Technology Services, AECOM Transportation, Europe, and Neill Bennett, Assistant Director Highways Commissioning at Derbyshire County Council join us to discuss the system that can seamlessly integrate various data sources to provide driver information and optimise traffic flow.Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!They talk about the challenge of getting people to use the solution and how it can grow beyond the borders of Derbyshire, and support highways authorities across the country.You'll hear how it has it grown and how is it scaleable, how the council's initial ITS strategy has developed, and where this fits in with the DfT's Intelligent Traffic Management Fund.You'll also hear why National Highways wins Adrian's Accolade, and about some key dates for your diary from our podcast partners.

Our Special Guest this week is Simon Berkeley BA MA MRTPI, Head of Local Plans, at the Planning Inspectorate. Latest News Update on planning related matters. Decision of the Secretary of State for Transport dated 16th May 2024 granting a modified DCO following an application made by National Highways for the Proposed M3 Junction 9 under section 37 of the Planning Act 2008 following the recommendation of the Examining Authority. Decision of an inspector dated 15th May 2024 allowing an appeal made by Wates Developments against the decision of Cherwell DC to refuse to grant outline permission for up to 147 homes, POS, playing field and sports pitches on an unallocated green field site land on the southern edge of Chesterton some 5 km from Bicester. Decision of an inspector dated 16th May 2024 dismissing an appeal by Bellway Homes Ltd (North East) against the decision of Durham County Council for the development of 148 homes on a greenfield site immediately outside the settlement boundary of Great Lumley, agreed not to be of a valued landscape but in a location judged not to be sustainable by the inspector.

The Department for Transport appoints Scotland's Railway Managing Director Alex Hynes as its new Director General of the Rail Infrastructure and Service Delivery Group, giving us a ray of hope for the first time, which leads us on to… Richard spilling the beans on a hitherto unknown exchange that took place during the Rail Review 2004 – and why we must heed the lessons on history. Auditors question the going concern status of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and we ask whether the sector is slipping into real crisis? Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been at it again with his private jets. The M25 closes for a weekend… and we ask whether National Highways has done any media training lately! Richard experiences train tickets and rail fares madness first hand… And Marylebone station celebrates 125 years. Not bad considering it nearly became a coach park. Green Signals: Website - http://www.greensignals.org Newsletter - http://www.greensignals.org/#mailing-list YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GreenSignals Follow: X (Twitter) - https://twitter.com/greensignallers LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/green-signals-productions-ltd Instagram - https://instagram.com/greensignallers Credits: Presenters - Nigel Harris (@railnigel on X) & Richard Bowker CBE (@SRichardBowker). General Manager: Stef Foster (@stefatrail)

In conversation with Jonathan Wade from National Highways, I discussed the unprecedented weekend closure of the M25, highlighting the project's necessity and its ramifications. Advice for affected travellers and a look into future closures were also shared, aiming to mitigate the impact.This podcast is free, as is my weekly newsletter. Subscribe here and have it delivered to your inbox every Friday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The water that runs off our traffic-filled roads ends up in our rivers, but we know little about it, it's hardly monitored and improving the quality of that runoff is a huge task.Join us for this special episode of Planet Possible in collaboration with Watershed Investigations as we dig into the realities of highway runoff . . We're joined from the front line by Jo Bradley from Stormwater Shepherds as she carries out water quality testing and hear from both National Highways, who own the strategic road network and the Environment Agency, the environmental regulator in England.  We explore how we manage these flows and what the future looks like - and of course we'll offer our guests the Planet Possible magic wand too.Post-interview clarification on behalf of National Highways:”National Highways developed its water runoff risk assessment tool in partnership with the Environment Agency, and it was agreed it was fit for purpose. Similarly, on the M6 J21A-26, seven Vortex Separation Chambers have been installed as part of upgrade work to keep pollutants in check. Along with drainage, these devices use hydrodynamic separation to capture and retain insoluble particles such as silt, hydrocarbons and debris from the surface water systems.” Our 2024 season is supported by Atkins Réalis

Bishop & Taylor explore the disconnect between attempts to remove red tape for house-builders while simultaneously burdening them with ever-greater levels of bureacracy. They also discuss news from a couple of regulatory authorities: the Office of Rail & Road is investigating the deteriorating performance of National Highways; and the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) is on EDF's case after a series of safety failings at its power plants.

The Ministry of Transport is seeking the Government's approval to upgrade three national highways in the Mekong Delta region.

This exciting episode, meet Ben Renshaw, considered one of today's foremost leadership thinkers, whose innovative work with leading organisations, senior executives and entrepreneurs has brought him international acclaim. Ben writes about how to lead and be successful in today's volatile world and is the author of 11 popular books, including How to be a CEO, LoveWork, Being, Purpose, Lead! and SuperCoaching.  An inspirational speaker, his keynote talks include Leading with Purpose, Purpose with Performance, and Leading Sustainable Growth. As an executive coach and leadership consultant, Ben has worked with clients including Allen & Overy LLP, Barclays, BT, ClearScore, Diageo, Entrepreneurs Organisation, Government Communication Service, Heathrow, Heinz, Henley Business School, HSBC, Imperial Business School, IHG, KPMG, M&S, National Highways, P&G, Sainsbury's, Sky, TfL, UBS, Unilever, Virgin Media and Warner Bros. Hit play to find out about his journey. [05:00s] His journey into leadership coaching [10:02s] Growth of purpose-driven organizations today[12:53s] Genesis of How to be a CEO[16: 06s] Evolution of CEOs – then and now [38:10s] RWL: Listen to ‘The Diary Of A CEO' podcast with Steven Bartlett ; Read ‘Right Kind of Wrong' by Amy Edmondson  Find more about Ben, his work and his book here: https://www.benrenshaw.com/Connect with Ben on LinkedIn Connect with Vinay on Twitter or LinkedIn What did you think about this episode? What would you like to hear more about? Or simply, write in and say hello! podcast@c2cod.comSubscribe to us on your favorite platforms – Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Tune In Alexa, Amazon Music, and more.  This podcast is sponsored by C2C-OD, your Organizational Development consulting partner ‘Bringing People and Strategy Together'. Follow @c2cod on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook 

We end 2023 with a very special guest! Keith Price is the CSO for National Highways. Has worked in tech since 1991, beginning as a Mainframe Operator in the United States Air Force - so of course I had to wear my Air Force cap for this discussion! If you've never come across Keith's LinkedIn posts I'd be surprised, as he is always providing excellent and helpful content. He assists students, military veterans, and professionals wanting a change in their profession in cybersecurity. Most importantly, he loves what he does! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/virtual-ciso-moment/message

National Highways owns the strategy for a significant proportion of the UK's roads and are a major buyer of asphalt, cement and steel. In this podcast you'll join Alex Cameron, Founder of Decarb Connect, in conversation with the Executive Director of Procurement, Malcolm Dare, and the Director of Environmental Sustainability, Steve Elderkin, to learn how they are driving the adoption of lower carbon materials.  Whether you're UK-based or not, the goal of this conversation is to highlight ways of working across a value chain to create a market for low carbon materials. You'll hear about the role of supply chain transformation, the need for new low carbon tech to be adopted quickly so buyers can decarbonise – and we look specifically at the strategy around Contracting for Carbon Contract.If you're a potential buyer of green products, you'll love the insights into how to work with your value chain and the contracting for carbon concept. If you're an industrial, you'll be interested in how you can encourage more collaboration with buyers of your materials to jointly scale the market for low carbon products. And for anyone else – you'll enjoy the buzz that comes from hearing about progress and real deployment of lower carbon products in national infrastructure. Show Links: ·         Learn about National Highways and their Net Zero Roads plans·         Connect with Malcolm Dare and Steve Elderkin at National Highways·         Connect with Alex to suggest a guest or to talk about what you're hearing on the podcast (or simply to learn more about Decarb Connect)·         Explore our upcoming events in the US, UK, Europe, Canada and more Learn about our Sponsor: Janno MediaMany thanks to our production partner and sponsor Janno Media for their support in delivering this podcast. They continue to facilitate great conversations that connect us with our audience, and their skills and expertise mean we can concentrate exclusively on generating great content to engage, inform and inspire. Want to learn more about Decarb Connect? Our global membership platform, events and facilitated introductions support the acceleration of industrial decarbonization around the world. Our clients include the most energy-intensive industrials from cement, metals and mining, glass, ceramics, chemicals, O&G and many more along with technology disruptors, investors and advisors.  Explore our Decarbonisation Leaders Network (DLN), where members share insights and experiences as they accelerate their net zero plans. Check out our full offering and learn more about our members, summits, reports and webinars.  If you enjoyed this conversation, take a look at the discussions about industrial decarbonisation taking place across our global event series. In 2024 you could join us at conferences in Manchester (February), Houston (March), Berlin (June), Toronto (November) or at any number of meet ups, site tours and virtual meetings.    

Is a motorhome warranty worth the paper it's written on? It's a sentence we've heard time and time again. So, this week Matt and Keith unpack motorhome warranties and if it's necessary when buying a motorhome or caravan.  Featuring an interview from MB&G Insurance, we unravel warranty coverage, types of warranties, claim limits, rising premium costs and the common types of claims. In the news, more controversies surround Smart Motorways as it is revealed National Highways have spent a significant amount of money to defend legal actions connected to incidents. www.lbc.co.uk/news/coroners-write-national-highways-smart-motorways And in the Q&A, we answer your questions on using Solbio organic toilet chemical, and we also discuss fighting condensation.

This week on Highways Voices talk about the new guidance for local highways authorities about consistent carbon measurement and reporting, that includes Scope 3 emissions.Simon Wilson from the Future Highways Research Group updates us about guidance around consistent carbon measurement and reporting. He joined in March last year to talk about Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions measurement, and is now back to talk about his work looking at Scope 3.Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!Scope 1 covers direct carbon emissions from Local Authority-owned or controlled sources, Scope 2 is all about indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating, and cooling consumed by the authority while Scope 3addresses supply chain emissions, including emissions from purchased goods and services."It comes with a cluster of problems on the basis that the supply chains are typically really very complicated," Mr Wilson explains. "Especially for highways authorities - they're multi tiered, you have multi disciplines and multiple disciplines across the supply chain. So you have different people doing different things with different materials using different processes, working seasonally, and you also have a huge diversity of readiness, some supply chain partners are very ready to report carbon, but probably not in a consistent way."In the chat he talks about the work done alongside ADEPT, what the value is in quantifying emissions and how it will have an effect on decision making in the future.You'll also hear why National Highways wins Adrians Accolade, and, in our partner news, about more help for local authorities around bidding for a share of the Government's £70 million traffic signals funding.

All transport begins with the surface on which they take place. How can we minimise the carbon impacts of roads, highways, and traffic congestion? Are smart roads the future? Learn how traffic infrastructure is providing the foundation for decarbonised transport. Featuring Christophe Nicodème (Director General, European Union Road Federation), Max Sugarman (CEO, Intelligent Transport Systems UK), Kate Jennings (Policy Director, Logistics UK), Adam Simmons (Director of Strategic Planning & Analysis, National Highways). The inaugural Innovation Zero Congress at Olympia London in 2023 convened 6,866 passionate, forward-looking experts who exchanged critical knowledge, debate and discussions around the implementation and scaling of the innovations needed to meet the Paris goals. Learn more via www.innovationzero.com.

Hello and welcome to episode five of the project EDWARD 2023 Podcast. My role in the Safe system. This week our reporter is Darren Lindsey and he's in conversation with Mark Cartwright from National Highways for a discussion on some of the unique challenges faced by truck and van drivers on the Strategic Road Network and a look at what's being done to improve levels of safety, compliance and driver well-being.Darren met Mark at the recent Fleet Operators Recognition Scheme (FORS) Conference in Birmingham, first asking him about the benefits of technology in supporting drivers.

Better use of data is key to more effective government. Across government, teams are doing fascinating work with data. But those projects don't get the attention they deserve. Data Bites aims to change that. This event was the 47th in our series, where the speakers present their work in an exciting, quickfire format. Each speaker had eight minutes, followed by eight minutes of questions from the audience. This month's speakers were: Phillip Davies, Deputy Director of Business Surveys and Registers Transformation, Office for National Statistics, on ‘Business Data Collection: Digital by Default & A Future Vision Gordon Guthrie, Research Fellow at Scottish Government under the First Minister's Digital Fellowship Programme, on constitutional oversight of data as the foundation for digital transformation Adam Locker, Head of Data Architecture and Engineering at National Highways, on getting data things done Siân Thomas, Chief Data Officer at the Department for Business and Trade, on agile governance of Large Language Models (LLMs) The event was chaired by Gavin Freeguard, Associate at the Institute for Government.

In this episode, join Project EDWARD at the Highways UK Exhibition in Birmingham where Max Sugarman from the Intelligent Transport Systems (UK) connects with industry experts Vivi Michalaki of National Highways, Geoff Collins of Acusensus and Rodney Moffat of Amey. Together, they explore the pivotal role technology plays in enhancing road safety for everyone. Tune in to discover how these innovators are shaping the future of safer roads through cutting-edge solutions.

In an antidote to intense recent coverage of HS2 and alternative schemes, Christian Wolmar and Mark Walker take a look at 5 transport stories from around the UK listeners may have missed [2:20].  Christian reports on what the House of Commons Transport Committee was told about August's air traffic chaos [11:14], how National Highways in England has been persuaded to reverse the infilling of a much-loved railway bridge [16:50] and why so many bus shelters have vanished from the streets of Croydon [23:10].  Finally, Christian asks why we can't have a comprehensive transport strategy for the UK [32:19].

A study suggests that an ultra-rare star collision in the Milky Way galaxy could have the capability to wipe out life on Earth.Scientists believe pairs of black holes could be hiding as one.Warnings of more floods and ice after Storm Babet leaves hundreds of homes submerged.Also in this episode:Can this tech stop winter travel chaos? National Highways announce £15.4m in new weather stationsIs Apple planning a surprise October iMac announcement?World's largest-ever asteroid impact crater may be in AustraliaStudy suggests better use of existing drugs increases cervical cancer survivalMark Zuckerberg uses Meta's new AI Ray-Bans to help him with dad duties Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We hear from the Roads and Local Transport Minister and the CEO of National Highways on a busy Highways Voices from Highways UK 2023 today.These are brought to you thanks to the sponsorship of AGD Systems and Traffic Group Signals, Kiely Bros, Re-flow, Stantec and Yunex Traffic.In the podcast from Birmingham's NEC, Richard Holden MP tells Paul Hutton about the National Parking Platform, his promise to "go after" authorities not taking advantage of lane rental schemes, and how the £70 million traffic signals funding will make sure we're keeping traffic flowing.We don't get a date for RIS3 announcement from Nick Harris of National Highways, but we do talk about planning, rebuilding and not road building and his targets for the future.On top of that you'll hear from a range of exhibitors and speakers, including Reflow, Traffic Group Signals, Acusensus and Clearview Intelligence, plus you'll hear Conference Director Claudia Davidson's advice on the must attend sessions during Thursday.Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts,Spotify,Amazon Music,Google PodcastsorPocket Casts and never miss an episode!

When I go to site, I love it, and I just feel like I'm in a little sweet shop or something," says National Highways Civil Engineer Abigail Filby on this week's Highways Voices - "It is so fun, and you learn so much, and there's so much experience on site."Abigail and colleague Mitchell Mackenzie, who's a Project Controls Apprentice, join Adrian Tatum on the podcast to discuss attracting people into the industry and how, as Mitchell puts it, "When I was watching Bob the Builder, I never realised how much goes in and how many different roles there are in this industry."Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!The pair have been leaders in National Highways' social value delivery, presenting on the subject at the organisation's Engagement Council meeting in Leeds back in March."We organised a whole conference, a whole day around that [social value], and we split the day into five main sections, we had breakout rooms, we had a director Q&A panel, we had a CEO Q&A panel, we had like a networking area as well," explains Abigail, "and then we also had an area where we could get other supply chain companies in to talk about how they're involved as well," while Mitchell adds that "The thing about social value, especially within National Highways is it's the key thing that graduate apprentices actually get involved in."The pair also talk to Adrian about what more needs to be done to produce more recruits to the industry, their passion for it, and how we could engage better with the travelling public.On the podcast, you'll also hear news from our partners including exciting road safety technology and a new guide to industry terminology, and you'll also year why Stocksigns win our Accolade this week.

Sophie Smart was travelling back from a birthday outing with her eight-year-old son Karson, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, when the car's clutch failed on the M1. As members of Motability and on a priority-list they expected the RAC to be with them in under an hour - but after repeated calls and further communication with National Highways and the Police over a seven-hour period, no-one ever turned up. Sophie tells Nikki and Emma how the situation became a four-day ordeal and Graham Footer, from Disabled Motoring UK, offers advice on what disabled drivers and passengers should do if they find themselves in a similar situation. Author Lizzie Huxley-Jones visits the studio to discuss their debut novel, Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend, and we get an update on Daisy Simpson, who has been stuck in an inaccessible flat for more than two years while she waits for an adapted home. Plus listener Rikki sent in a very special message – if you'd like to do the same, email accessall@bbc.co.uk, tweet us @BBCAccessAll or send us a WhatsApp message or voicenote to 0330 123 9480! Sound recording and design was by Ben Anderson and Phil Bull The production team were: Beth Rose, Keiligh Baker and Emma Tracey The editor was Jonathan Aspinwall

We hear from two CEOs, an inclusive mobility visionary and industry legend on Highways Voices this week.Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!In interviews recorded at last week's ITS European Congress in Lisbon, ERTICO-ITS Europe CEO Joost Vantomme discusses UK-European co-operation after he signed a new agreement with the Transport Technology Forum.We hear from Sandra Witzel, Chief Marketing Officer at Global Mobility as a Service tech provider SkedGo, talking about how much technology can be used to make the transport network more accessible, before learning from SWARCO CEO Michael Schuch about the company's new GoGreen initiative which takes on the challenge of talking to 112 European Green Deal cities about their environmental issues in just eleven months.Finally we hear from an industry legend. More than 30 years ago, Professor Eric Sampson was one of the architects of the first ITS World Congress, and he's been to every in-person event since. He's now retiring as adviser to ERTICO and this was his last congress as Chief Rapporteur. We hear his memories and highlights in a fascinating and emotional interview, and how commonplace concepts such as satellite navigation and real-time data into vehicles were both showcased for the first time at Congresses.Plus you'll hear about more about the TTF-ERTICO partnership, who are ADEPT prize winners, details of LCRIG's Innovation Festival and why June is a busy month for ITS UK, along with the reasons National Highways win Adrian's Accolade this week.Podcast timings:4m24s - Joost Vantomme, ERTICO9m26s - Sandra Witzel, SkedGo16m20s - News from our Podcast Partners20m34s - Michael Schuch, SWARCO24m10s - Prof Eric Sampson, Chief Rapporteur

In this podcast we try to understand a bit more about the challenge of fixing transport in the North - and how Sub-National Transport Bodies like Transport for the North can help to drive the vital investment required.And yes - I renamed this podcast because feedback suggested the original title "Understanding the role of Sub-National Transport Bodies" was just a little too obscure and not "grabbing" enough! So we start by asking what exactly are Sub-National Transport Bodies (STBs) – what are they, what do they do and why do we need them.STBs  were created by the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act in 2016, and there are now seven Sub National Transport Bodies covering different regions of the UK. The intension is to provide strategic transport policy leadership at a larger scale than is possible by the existing local transport authorities or local authorities individually.Of the seven currently in existence, only one - Transport for the North - has been given statutory powers – and as such, from 2018 TfN has been a statutory partner to the Department for Transport, National Highways, and Network Rail to ensure that the North's pan-Northern strategic transport priorities are developed and delivered. The rest, bodies such as Transport for the South East, Transport for the East, England's Economic Heartland, Western Gateway and Peninsular Transport and Midlands Connect operate in shadow form, advising and cajoling but without formal powers to act.That said, they do hold influence and, by bringing together local authorities, businesses, communities and asset owners, they should able to make significant cross border difference in terms of where sone vast sums of devolved and centralised public cash is focussed. But do they in reality? Well to discuss this it is my pleasure to welcome Martin Tugwell to the Infrastructure Podcast. Martin is chief executive of Transport for the North and the former leader of England Economic Heartland so probably knows more about STBs than anyone in the UK! STB Conference - 5th JuneTransport for the North websiteTfN strategic transport plan

Some councils in England have come under fire for unnecessarily felling old healthy trees to make way for regeneration projects. In Plymouth more than a hundred mature trees were chopped down despite public disapproval, and in Sheffield an independent inquiry found that the council's destruction of thousands of trees was misjudged. National Highways, the government agency responsible for England's main roads, has also admitted that more than half a million trees it planted beside a single 21-mile stretch of new carriageway have died - with the cost of replanting them now £2.9m. On the Sky News Daily, Sally Lockwood finds out what is going wrong with regeneration schemes in Plymouth and Sheffield with local campaigners, and speaks to our people and politics correspondent Nick Martin about why local tree rows have become such a big deal. Producer: Soila Apparicio Interviews Producer: Alex Edden Digital Producer: Jada Kai-Meosa John Editor: Philly Beaumont

National Highways, the government agency responsible for England's main roads, has admitted that more than half a million trees beside a single 21-mile stretch of new carriageway have died – with the cost of replanting them now £2.9 million pounds. Many tree experts say this is symptomatic of a focus on tree planting over tree care. On this week's Sky News ClimateCast, Tom Heap visits the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon where we speak to Lib Dem councillors Edna Murphy, Ros Hathorn and Firouz Thompson about what's happened. Plus, tree surgeon Mike Downs on why it's a much bigger issue, and former chief project officer at the Woodland Trust, Carol Honeybun Kelly, talks about solutions to help trees settle, survive and thrive. Annie Joyce – senior podcast producer Paul Stanworth – editor

“I fear if you were to drive along any road - be it a rural road or a motorway - this afternoon or this evening, and you looked carefully around you, you would probably notice a lot of people who are distracted who are not doing the right thing, and frankly, are a hazard both to themselves and everybody around them.”So says enforcement and road safety expert Geoff Collins, who is this week's guest on Highways Voices podcast discussing distracted driving, driver behaviour and the role of technology in improving the road safety situation.Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!Mr Collins has taken on the role of UK Manager for Australian company Acusensus, which uses artificial intelligence and camera footage to spot people using hand-held phones. The technology is being used in a series of National Highways and Police trials across the UK. People using their phones or not wearing a seatbelt are spotted automatically as they drive past specially-equipped camera vans which have technology to see through the windscreen and into the vehicle.The magnitude of the problem was highlighted in recent trials in Sussex where 200 offences were spotted in checks of 10,000 vehicles at three locations. Furthermore professional drivers accounted for 32% of illegal mobile phone use and 82% of seatbelt offences.Geoff Collins told Highways Voices he is confident that this technology will be welcomed by the majority of motorists who are fed up with distracted drivers: “I get plenty of anecdotal examples when people tell me that it really annoys them,” he explains. “You can see the head going down, then the car is veering left and right a little bit, and then they look up again and they go straight. It's because they're looking at their phone, and they're checking a text message. The level of acceptance of that type of behaviour is I think, really low, which is good because we want the roads to be safer for everybody.”The podcast not only features details of how the technology works, and what it can be used for, but also how it can impact driver behaviour without becoming draconian. “You can actually use that as an opportunity for an educational intervention,” Mr Collins says. “So it might be that someone needs to be told the error of their ways, and the way of doing that is through an education intervention, which means they should be less likely to do it again in future, and I think that's a very good approach. So, you catch someone who say you shouldn't be doing that [and] here's why you shouldn't be doing that. There will be a fine, you do need to attend a training course, but at the moment, we won't put points on your license. But if we catch you again, we absolutely will.”Also in today's programme you can hear the latest news from LCRIG, ADEPT, the Transport Technology Forum and ITS (UK) plus why Strada Imaging wins "Adrian's Accolade"

Bishop & Taylor give two cheers to National Highways for choosing to repair a Scottish viaduct instead of simply filling it in; they discuss latest initiatives in the push for a national retrofit strategy; and they sympathise with a contractor stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Top 5 Most Read RNS's on Vox Markets for Monday 6th March 2023 5. Versarien #VRS - Costain Civil Engineering Project Versarien announce the completion of the construction phase of a civil engineering project being undertaken by the Company with a subsidiary of Costain Group plc. Versarien has been working with Costain to develop designs for, and bring into production, a 3D printed concrete headwall for use in highway construction projects, part of the Digital Roads of the Future Partnership, a collaboration led by the University of Cambridge, Costain and National Highways, of which Versarien is a partner. 4. Horizonte Minerals #HZM - Araguaia Line2 Feasibility Study Contracts Awarded Horizonte Minerals reports that it has awarded contracts for the Line 2 Feasibility Study at its Araguaia Nickel Project. The second line at Araguaia is expected to increase production by 100% to 29,000 tonnes of nickel per year through the construction of a duplicate RKEF processing facility ("Line 2"). 3. IOG PLC #IOG - Blythe H2 well spud IOG plc confirms that the Blythe H2 well was spudded at 3.20am on Sunday 5th March. The H2 well is expected to take approximately three months to drill, complete and hook-up, subject to the usual offshore operational risks to scheduling. 2. Greatland Gold #GGP - 2023 Half Year Results Summary Cash: £59.8 million (30 June 2022: £10.4 million) § Total Debt: £43.5 million (30 June 2022: £43.1 million) § Operating loss (before share-based payments): £3.5 million (H1 FY22: £2.9 million) § Havieron Feasibility Study progressing; focus on value enhancing options § Updated Mineral Resource for Havieron of 85Mt at 2.0g/t Au and 0.26% Cu for a total of 5.5Moz of Au and 222kt of Cu (100% basis), being over 6.5Moz AuEq 1. UK Oil & Gas #UKOG - Turkey: Pinarova-1 drilling update UK Oil & Gas announce that further to its Pinarova-1 release of 1st March 2023, the Company is now in possession of Turkey's General Directorate of Mining & Petroleum Affairs' formal written consent covering the Pinarova-1 exploration well's geological and technical objectives and design. As is customary, GDMPA request that they must receive a notice of intended "spud" date five days before actual drilling commencement, still currently expected to be around the end of March or early April 2023.

National Highways is an organisation that has a huge influence on the whole construction sector and is ultimately responsible for keeping the country moving through the management, development and maintenance of the strategic road network. And because of this, it has a major stake in innovations such as Digital Roads that are critical if we're to meet the challenges of climate change, carbon reduction and biodiversity. In the latest in-depth edition of our Think Tank Series podcast, supported by 3D Machine Control and Surveying specialist Leica Geosystems, Malcolm Dare, National Highways Executive Director of Commercial, Supply Chain and Procurement, talks Peter Haddock through a whole range of subjects, mapping out the future direction of the organisation. They talk about: - Delivering Net Zero by embracing innovations across the board - Tackling the skills shortage and attracting new talent - ESG and measuring social impact - Working collaboratively with supply chain partners and academics in research partnerships to deliver new materials and ways of working - The need to accelerate change by testing and trialling new solutions and ideas - The potential of technologies like the Cat Command Remote Control Station and autonomous drones - How carbon emissions can be reduced now and into the future using technologies like 3D machine control and switching to alternative fuels like Hydrogen And throughout the podcast, Malcolm signposts numerous standards and future roadmaps that are already documented whilst also mentioning the imminent publication of exciting future plans. You might need to take notes on this podcast as there is so much information to take in over the 52 minute conversation. A big thanks to Malcolm and the National Highways team for getting involved in this latest episode. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/contentwithmedia/message

This is a key moment for the future of our roads.Against a challenging backdrop that includes legal requirement to meet net zero, high inflation, difficulties in delivering existing investment programmes and uncertainty about the future levels of demand. This episode of CIHT's Transport Talks focuses on the work of Road Investment Scrutiny Panel. In January 2023, the panel published a report called “Key questions for road investment and spending”. Hosted by Sara Zuin from CIHT and featuring:Professor Glenn Lyons, Chair of Road Investment Scrutiny Panel Professor Steve Gooding, at UWE Bristol and Director of the RAC foundationTo read the report: Key questions for road investment and spending Key quotes: Glenn Lyons: "It's reasonable to raise the question when we look at the road investment history, about the make up of the voices, experience and mindsets that come into that judgement process.... and just simply as our report highlights the diversity of issues from decarbonisation , to biodiversity, to social outcomes, to maintenance, as well as the economy, one quickly realises if there is a dearth of diversity in the conversation, in the decision-making there is a real risk the robustness of our decisions aren't meeting the standards we should expect for stewardship of the futureSteve Gooding: 'We very deliberately did not set out to say 'here are a set of conclusions, here is what you must do'. That wasn't what we are about. I'd like people to think about this as a start of a conversation, and if you're a member of CIHT it's a conversation you should be getting involved with. Future of Roads SurveyIn 2023 the government will be consulting on the content of the 3rd Roads Investment Strategy (RIS3). This will establish objectives and an investment programme for the strategic road network managed by National Highways.This is a key moment for the future of our roads and is taking place against a challenging backdrop that includes the legal requirement to meet decarbonisation targets, high inflation, difficulties in delivering the existing investment programme and uncertainty about future levels of demand.In this survey we would like to understand your views on what the government's goals should be, the problems and opportunities that need to be addressed, and the most promising routes to create a network that meets the future needs of users and society.The results from this survey will be used to inform CIHT's advice to the Government on RIS3 and wider roads policy.

This is a key moment for the future of our roads.Against a challenging backdrop that includes legal requirement to meet net zero, high inflation, difficulties in delivering existing investment programmes and uncertainty about the future levels of demand. This episode of CIHT's Transport Talks focuses on the work of Road Investment Scrutiny Panel. In January 2023, the panel published a report called “Key questions for road investment and spending”. Hosted by Sara Zuin from CIHT and featuring:Professor Glenn Lyons, Chair of Road Investment Scrutiny Panel Professor Steve Gooding, at UWE Bristol and Director of the RAC foundationTo read the report: Key questions for road investment and spending Key quotes: Glenn Lyons: "It's reasonable to raise the question when we look at the road investment history, about the make up of the voices, experience and mindsets that come into that judgement process.... and just simply as our report highlights the diversity of issues from decarbonisation , to biodiversity, to social outcomes, to maintenance, as well as the economy, one quickly realises if there is a dearth of diversity in the conversation, in the decision-making there is a real risk the robustness of our decisions aren't meeting the standards we should expect for stewardship of the futureSteve Gooding: 'We very deliberately did not set out to say 'here are a set of conclusions, here is what you must do'. That wasn't what we are about. I'd like people to think about this as a start of a conversation, and if you're a member of CIHT it's a conversation you should be getting involved with. Future of Roads SurveyIn 2023 the government will be consulting on the content of the 3rd Roads Investment Strategy (RIS3). This will establish objectives and an investment programme for the strategic road network managed by National Highways.This is a key moment for the future of our roads and is taking place against a challenging backdrop that includes the legal requirement to meet decarbonisation targets, high inflation, difficulties in delivering the existing investment programme and uncertainty about future levels of demand.In this survey we would like to understand your views on what the government's goals should be, the problems and opportunities that need to be addressed, and the most promising routes to create a network that meets the future needs of users and society.The results from this survey will be used to inform CIHT's advice to the Government on RIS3 and wider roads policy.

A mum from Edenbridge who spent 18 months in agony has finally been diagnosed, after flying to Poland to see a doctor. Agnieszka Gray spoke to her GP, a gynecologist and even went to A&E four times - but says no one took her pain seriously. A doctor in Poland almost immediately realised she had endometriosis which affects the ovaries - hear from her and our reporter who covered the story. Also in today's podcast, there's been a sharp rise in the number of households in need of emergency housing in Kent's most deprived district. A total of 542 people in Thanet have had to be given the support during the last financial year - that's almost double than the previous one. Chris Thomas from homelessness charity Porchlight warns of a "crisis" this winter. The Home Secretary says it's becoming incredibly difficult to find accommodation for asylum seekers who are crossing the Channel in small boats. A controversial processing site in Thanet has now been cleared following concerns about overcrowding and poor conditions. Suella Braverman's been giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee in Parliament. The MP for Dartford has called for Just Stop Oil to be classified as a criminal organisation. Gareth Johnson's spoken out in the Commons after two men climbed the Dartford Crossing last month as part of a climate protest. The winter season is officially under way for the people who make sure our roads are clear of frost and snow over the next few months. The KentOnline Podcast's been told how almost 120 gritters are on standby along with more than 63,000 tonnes of salt.  We've been chatting with Matt Salt from National Highways. And in football, hear from manager Neil Harris following Gillingham's draw at Crawley Town. It means the Gills have been unable to climb out of the League Two relegation zone.

This week's Highways Voices returns to the keynote session at Highways UK to discuss the important subject of decarbonising our roads.The discussion featured representatives of National Highways, Mott MacDonald, Arcadis and Costain, who discussed goals, commitment and how to change behaviour.The panel also discusses the move to electric vehicles and whether we can adequately decarbonise freight.In this podcast you will hear from:Stephen Elderkin, Director of Environmental Sustainability, National Highways Kim Yates, UK & Europe Climate Change operational lead at Mott MacDonaldRamin Massoumi, Global Solutions Director, ArcadisLara Young, Group Climate Change Director at Costain You'll also hear news from our partners and why TMP Solutions are this week's winners of "Adrian's Accolade"

A Kent farm shop owner is urging us to shop local to help British farmers survive the cost of living crisis. Amber Furnival runs a store on Romney Marsh but says she was 'disheartened' after going a whole day without a single customer. The farm store opened in 2020 and only stocks British produce which does cost a bit more. Also in today's podcast, as the World Cup gets underway in Qatar, it's feared there could be an increase in domestic abuse here in Kent. Victims are being urged to contact the police or reach out to charities to get help if they're facing violence because of the football. Hear from Emma Craigie from Whitehead Monckton solicitors in Maidstone. A government minister says as far as he knows the death of an asylum seeker was not caused by conditions at a processing centre in Manston. A man being held at the site in Thanet became ill and passed away in hospital over the weekend. A Sittingbourne woman says she fears for her family's health because of the amount of mould in their home. Vicky Norman has lived in the property in Murston for the past eight years and says it's always been a problem. Elsewhere, cars have been vandalised along a road in Strood after a party advertised on social media got out of control. Details for the 16-year-old's birthday at Kitchener Road were shared on Snapchat and as many as 150 teenagers showed up. Councillor Zoe Van Dyke, who lives on the street, has been speaking to us about what happened. It's been a year since work began on revamping the Stockbury roundabout - and bosses say good progress is being made.  The hot and dry summer allowed crews to race ahead of schedule and the flyover is expected to be in place by the middle of next year  Our reporter's been chatting with Dan Rollinson who's from National Highways. And in football, hear from a very frustrated Gillingham manager as his side drop into the League Two relegation zone after losing to Newport at the weekend.

In today's podcast, Police have made further arrest, following another morning of Just Stop Oil protests on the M25. A rolling roadblock had been put in place between Junction 26 and 27 leading to the Dartford Crossing after a person was spotted trying to access a gantry. The support given to children with special educational needs and disabilities in Kent has been criticised in a damning report. Ofsted inspectors spoke to parents and young people earlier this year and found weaknesses hadn't been properly addressed. Hear from those in charge at Kent County Council.   There's been an increase in the number of children in Kent needing help with speech, language and communication. New data shows just over 1,000 Year 1 pupils have required support in the last academic year - a rise of around 8 percent. We chat to a Kent based speech therapist. As progress continues on the development of the M2 and A249 Stockbury roundabout, conservation efforts are also being ramped up. We chat to National Highways. Plus, hear from Gillingham boss Neil Harris after his side knocked Premier League side Brentford out of the Carabao Cup.

In Episode 1 of Season 3, of Driven By Data: The Podcast our CEO Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Davin Crowley-Sweet, Chief Data Officer at National Highways, where they discuss how to value your data like you value any other asset, which includes;Why CDO's shouldn't expect organisations to know what they want/need How data is an intangible digital asset that can be valued like any other asset whether you do something with it or notThe difference between “value” and “benefits” are how we're confusing themWhy it makes no sense that our balance sheet tells us more about our furniture than it does about data How he was able to value the data asset at £60 billion which was 50% of the value of the roads and 10x more than their technology assets Why valuing your data drives proportionate capital investment into itData Literacy V Business Literacy How the data strategy took 12 months to complete, included input from 300 people and identified circa £1 billion of potential upside The role that Anmut played in helping to value their data assetsHow they calculated it would cost £300m to realise £1bn in return and the strategy to do that cost £3mHow one project cost £400K to deliver over 6 months and returned £60 millionThe difference between quick wins and being opportunistic Why you must be a business leader first and a data leader second Why you have to frame data in a language your business understands How being able to quantify & articulate the value and benefits of data has made attracting talent much easier The mistakes he made at the startWhy you need to be disruptive but not cause disruption

For our Bauma 2022 show special, supported by 3D machine control and surveying specialist, Leica Geosystems, host Peter Haddock talks to Mark Crawford, the Digital Plant Manager for leading UK Tier 1 contractor, Balfour Beatty. This episode was recorded at Hexagon Live in Las Vegas following the launch of new surveying and construction sector technologies. Mark joined Balfour Beatty in his new role during the pandemic and has been heavily involved in accelerating the digital roadmap for the business. Mark: "The digitalisation of the mobile plant sector is all about the connectivity of the plant itself, the available technology and what capability that can deliver for our clients." Mark is also heavily involved in the National Highways (the organisation that looks after the UK's motorway network) Connected and Autonomous Plant (CAP) Group, which works together to revolutionise the construction sector. Mark: "Working with the CAP group National Highways has set out a roadmap for the future delivery of projects, and this has influenced our own roadmap to deliver projects for the organisation. It has already led to us accelerating programmes that include the interlinking of telematics data from across our fleet and supply chain. "This includes how we move data from the office to the field, and the creation of our own digital toolset. Through collaboration and training across our business and supply chain we are ensuring everyone is now working on a consistent platform, with one version of the truth, so that we can ultimately achieve our Net Zero aims. And as a leading contractor, it is our goal to develop a roadmap that is capable of achieving the needs of all our customers. "For example, in order to support National Highways, we need to work a couple of years in advance to ensure the whole supply chain and technology is available, tested and ready to deliver. This requires us to walk back from the date of compliance with everyone involved and to challenge the OEMs and technology providers to have solutions available for our supply chain to adopt. So it's a complex and continuous process that will require investment in both equipment and people to deliver." Thanks for listening to this episode of our Think Tank series, supported by Leica Geosystems the 3D machine control and surveying specialist. If you like this one, please listen to our other podcast episodes and check out our video interviews from sites and events on our YouTube channel at youtube.com/contentwithmedia. To follow Peter Haddock visit his profile on Linkedin here https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterhaddock --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/contentwithmedia/message

“I think in general, the company's done done pretty well, and there's certainly been some significant successes,” says Harry Garnham of the Office and Rail and Road talking about National Highways performance on this week's Highways Voices website. “But it's not to say there haven't been challenges, and there haven't been areas where we have concerns and think they can improve.” The ORR's Head of Performance, Roads, chats to Adrian Tatum on this week's podcast, where he discusses smart motorways, the environment and communications in a wide-ranging interview. On safety, he says, “The company… is ambitious, and we want them to set out how they're able to do that, and then just maybe more specifically, in terms of a key point, we do also monitor national highways around the safety of smart motorways, in particular, the delivery of the action plan that DFT set.” Find out his thoughts in the podcast today where you can also hear the latest news from our partners including a major collaboration and who win's “Adrian's Accolade” this week.

In this episode of #NAEEM_SIKANDAR_PODCAST, we have invited Mr. Yasir Arafat, an inspirational speaker, life coach (UK certified), and corporate trainer serving Pakistan's civil service, military, and corporate sectors. He was awarded by the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for his services in the field of training and development. He has over 18 years of experience in training and development, management, academia, and life coaching. His services have been highly recognized and appreciated by the Pakistan Army, Punjab Police, Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), State Bank of Pakistan, National Highways and Highways Police, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), CTD, Elite Force, Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR), Punjab Higher Education Department, PITB, Pakistan Customs, and Islamabad Police.

Ambisense, an IoT and AI analytics business which helps companies to mitigate environmental risks and improve sustainability is pleased to have been involved in the Lower Thames Crossing Project, working to help them reduce their carbon cost of construction. Ambisense was involved in the preliminary ground surveys in support of Highways England's Lower Thames Crossing, which is a once in a generation road upgrade that looks to transform links between Kent, Thurrock, and Essex in the UK. The scheme will positively impact the entire South-East of the UK and beyond, providing a key gateway for trade between the midlands and the north. This is the first major UK infrastructure project to use its procurement to target low carbon construction with incentives that drive further continuous carbon reduction across projects of this type. “It has been fantastic to be involved in a project such as the Lower Thames Crossing. This ‘pathfinder' project has made use of carbon neutral construction as part of its efforts and ambitions to make the new crossing the greenest road ever built in the UK. The project will help the UK reach net zero by 2050, which is a very exciting prospect. Additionally, this sets the standard for all other infrastructural projects to be executed in a low carbon way in the future,” commented Stephen McNulty, CEO and founder of Ambisense. Ambisense contributed to reducing the carbon cost on the Lower Thames Crossing project by supplying high-quality data that was automatically, continuously, and securely transmitted, resulting in a reduced amount of site visits. Data analytics also reduced the risk of over-engineered designs, minimising the use of materials, such as concrete and steel, and reducing use of other resources. Ambisense's mission since being founded by CEO Stephen McNulty in 2014 has been to build the world?s leading system of intelligence – to automate, analyse, and accelerate environmental risk assessment for a safer and more sustainable world. This project is a model example of how technology can be successfully woven into incumbent industry business models and used to support the project team in the management and mitigation of environmental risk. National Highways have employed many tactics, such as the involvement of Ambisense, to ensure this process is done in the most environmentally positive way possible. Ambisense combines comprehensive geo-environmental industry experience with deep technical expertise to give a solution unique to our industry. It uses environmental intelligence to give actionable insights into both the current and predicted status of a project, allowing faster, better decision-making. “We are delighted to have had the opportunity to share our expertise as part of such a strategically important low carbon infrastructure project in the UK, a project that paves the way for transport infrastructure progress. The ambitions of the Lower Thames Crossing team echo our own, and we are excited to see more projects like this across the UK in the future,” commented Richard Lavery, Development Director – Infrastructure & Construction. The route, which has been in discussion for more than 10 years, is estimated to open in 2029 or 2030. See more podcasts here. More about Irish Tech News Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too. You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here: If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie now to discuss. Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at Info@IrishTechNews.ie now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience. You can also find and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

“There's something like 46 action plans now, across the company, I'm really clear that what we can't do is have a big central team that is delivering on carbon, and everyone else carries on working as they did before,” explains National Highways' Director of Environmental Sustainability Steve Elderkin on this week's Highways Voices podcast. “Carbon needs to become part of everyone's role and everyone's decision making. So my team are going to remain pretty small actions are going to be owned across the business, and if we deliver against the commitments in the plan, then we will deliver the carbon reductions that we need to.” Mr Elderkin took on this role at the beginning of the year, with a remit to lead the implementation of National Highways Net Zero Plan and Environmental Strategy, connecting the country sustainably. He gave a wide-ranging interview on the podcast, telling Adrian Tatum that, “All of our governance decisions, needs to be thinking about not just financial affordability, but carbon affordability. and decision makers need to have good carbon information in front of them. But also for partners and contractors, they need to have the understanding of where the carbon is coming from, which parts of their design are carbon intensive, so that they can target their efforts to find alternative, lower carbon ways of delivering the benefits from the projects.” The interview features discussions about connected vehicles, the supply chain's role in carbon reduction and how we need to rethink the way roads are actually built. “If we cannot rise to the challenge of constructing and operating our roads in a net zero carbon way, then we're not going to have a lot of call for construction jobs,” adds Mr Elderkin, “and so the success and the vibrancy of the sector relies on us working together.” You'll also hear news about events from our podcast partners ITS (UK) and the Transport Technology Forum, details of a successful LCRIG Innovation Festival and a warning from ADEPT, as well as why Marlborough Highways wins this week's “Adrian's Accolade”.

In 2020 National Highways released their 2030/2040/2050 Net Zero plan. The plan laid out three main targets for reaching net zero, first cutting all their direct carbon emissions which includes lighting the network and all forms of corporate office emissions by 2030. Second is cutting all emissions from the network's construction and maintenance by 2040,...

As it has accounted for as many as half of our workforce fatalities, road driving is an important area for risk management. Both as employers and contractors of services, rail organisations have a duty of care to those who work for them.Part of the Road Risk Group's strategy for reducing road driving risk is to implement the National Highways programme Driving for Better Business (DfBB). And that includes extending participation in the programme to your supply chain. To support that aim, Anne-Marie Penny, Senior Road Safety Policy Adviser, talks about how National Highways has gone about it. 01:05 Why National Highways chose to embed DfBB into its supply chain.02:19 What National Highways looks for in its supplier companies04:05 The National Highways experience04:34 For more information…05:49 Summary These resources may help you:Driving for Better Business Free Risk Assessment: https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/free-risk-assessment/Driving for Better Business Rail Sector Gateway https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/rail-sector/Occupational Road Risk Management (web page with links to related industry groups) https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/leading-health-and-safety-on-britains-railway/occupational-road-risk-management 

Want to know what the future looks like for National Highways? Then this is the podcast for you as Muneer Akhtar talks to Peter Haddock about the challenges the sector faces and how National Highways is on the road to Net Zero. Through his work with the Connected Autonomous Plant Group, Muneer talks about technology adoption, innovation, people, skills and much more. This is a real insight into how National Highways is looking to work with businesses to deliver better outcomes for those using its infrastructure and those building and maintaining it. It's another Think Tank episode from our series supported by Leica Geosystems, where Peter looks into how we can get more from every drop of fuel. If you like this episode, please listen to our other podcast episodes and check out our video interviews from sites and events on our YouTube archive channel at youtube.com/contentwithmedia. To follow Peter Haddock visit his profile on Linkedin here https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterhaddock --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/contentwithmedia/message

Ep 11: On a road to nowhere with hero uncle Episode 11 of your friendly neighbourhood cricket podcast is about pitches: National Highways in Pakistan and West Indies and on "dust bowl" pejoratives. The trans-continental gang talk about the Women's World Cup, Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Karunaratne and other matters cricket. Tony Sebastian, who was in KSCA for the 2nd India-SL Test eloquently narrates an episode where uncle becomes an unwitting hero. Listen, share, subscribe... * Follow and send us feedback! Mohan: https://twitter.com/mohank Murali: https://twitter.com/muralisatagopun Krt: https://twitter.com/krtgrphr Kaustubh: https://instagram.com/_kaus Tony: https://twitter.com/notytony * Show notes 1. Pitch Invasion Story: https://www.indiatoday.in/sports/cricket/story/pink-ball-test-pitch-invader-takes-a-selfie-with-virat-kohli-before-being-chased-away-by-police-in-bengaluru-1925051-2022-03-14 2. How the idiot fans climbed over the fence at Bengaluru: https://youtu.be/oXFXrBjZrRY 3. Uncle Ji and why Indian Cops can't chase: https://youtu.be/Ovkq9Vv2YGM 4. Jarvo: https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/india-vs-england-2nd-test-day-3-pitch-invader-jarvo-69-video-7453960/ 5. Jarvo: https://youtu.be/3-H9REgWLOI 6. On “Dust Bowls”: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sport/bengaluru-pitch-rated-below-average-after-three-day-test-2575866 7. AH Kardar featuring in CBS's #ToTellTheTruth -- https://twitter.com/hached/status/766979647481327616?s=20&t=X-JbjIDiI-7xw0OtUYiBJQ 8. AH Kardar: “White On Green” -- https://twitter.com/hached/status/1256613089241415683?s=20&t=EBwNc4aL0yOxQ-sajmzgTg 9. AH Kardar: “White On Green” -- https://twitter.com/hached/status/1256612720415293440?s=20&t=LI3bmxPylD8bTSpc2Gr7oA 10. The Mike Cooward intgerview with “81 all out” -- https://www.81allout.com/2022/02/07/a-lifetime-in-cricket-writing-mike-coward-interview/ 11. We did not talk about KL Rahul, but what is a Bits & Pieces episode with a KLR reference? So take this: https://twitter.com/forwardshortleg/status/1504789965783273477?s=20&t=v_rwO3MkCntfhGbhFYjD7w

Episode 10 of your friendly neighbourhood cricket podcast is a pronunciation masterclass, where Yash Dhull and Nkrumah Bonner get their names Labuschagned. The gang ponders the flatness of the National Highways rolled out for Australia's Test tour of Pakistan, and their stark contrast to the #PeakBengaluru pitches India are tormenting Sri Lanka on. And we contemplate Sreesanth's eclectic India career. Show notes: 1. Andrew Fernando on Sri Lanka's tragi-comedy: https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/ind-vs-sl-2nd-test-relentless-india-make-mockery-of-pitch-conditions-and-sri-lanka-1305158 2. Ritesh Banglani on the spectacle of India's fast bowling:  https://twitter.com/banglani/status/1502713854614073344 3. How not to prepare to bat on pitches in Pakistan: https://twitter.com/marnus3cricket/status/1494158645462200320?s=20&t=Ip_spE2HMSu49Dbv3mtiXg 4. What not to eat when you're in Pakistan: https://twitter.com/marnus3cricket/status/1502216672253739010?s=20&t=Ip_spE2HMSu49Dbv3mtiXg 5. How not to walk by a swimming pool in Pakistan: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca61u88rc4q/?utm_medium=twitter 6. (A slim) Rangana Herath unveils the carrom ball on debut in 1999: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blW-tBOsRuU * Follow and send us feedback! PGK: https://twitter.com/peegeekay Mohan: https://twitter.com/mohank Murali: https://twitter.com/muralisatagopun Nitin: https://twitter.com/knittins Krt: twitter.com/krtgrphr

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/highways-voices/id1551975855 (Apple Podcasts,) https://open.spotify.com/show/0U6BbFBYLr5eeX0HuZtPv8 (Spotify), https://highways-voices.captivate.fm/amazon (Amazon Music), https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5jYXB0aXZhdGUuZm0vaGlnaHdheXMtdm9pY2Vz (Google Podcasts) or https://pca.st/7a3xxskl (Pocket Casts) and never miss an episode! Only by going beyond the traditional testing can you create something that breaks the mould in terms of product development, according to Bob Allan, Technical Director, Aggregate Industries, who was speaking with Richard Taylor, Global Technical Development Manager, Shell, on this week's Highways Voices. Last week Aggregate Industries and Shell launched the UK's first ever commercially available biogenic asphalt. http://www.aggregate.com/superlowcarbon (SuperLow-Carbon asphalt) has been developed in partnership with Shell Bitumen as a pioneering product for more sustainable pavement projects. In an industry first, SuperLow-Carbon uses Shell's Low Carbon Bitumen in a unique formula that utilises improved production processes and alternative energy sources to lower its embodied carbon footprint. It also includes a biogenic material that effectively locks CO2 within the asphalt rather than releasing it back into the atmosphere, which creates a ‘carbon sink' – something that absorbs and stores more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases. "From a research and development perspective, when you're assessing materials that are not traditional refinery residues, you have to go beyond the simple kind of index and empirical tests that we have today. And so when we were making the research for this particular biogenic material, we did quite a lot of fundamental tests around the chemistry of the product, how the product evolved with ageing, obviously, how it behaved, in simple terms in mixtures. And so it's not really a case of just making a simple substitution and then checking the index tests for material, you have to actually delve a lot deeper to actually understand whether this material is going to behave as a suitable road binder for the longer term," said Mr Allen. Mr Taylor added: "We are moving the industry towards a net zero asphalt pavement world, we're going to see the development of a net zero asphalt roadmap by National Highways soon, for example. And so it's important for us to develop the right kind of products that the industry is going to need going forward. I think there's a growing interest in how materials last, the thinking started to align very strongly with the circular economy in terms of longer lasting materials closing the loop recycling, but alongside a warm mix for minimising the inputs. There's also a need to minimise the embodied carbon within the bitumen." In the podcast you can also hear news from our partners including how ADEPT's Smart Places Live Labs programme sees half its projects led by women, who've released a video about it, that ITS (UK) has held a special meeting of its Women in ITS Forum to mark International Women's Day, more details of LCRIG's Planned Innovation Festival and the TTF reports about the latest on the Manual for Smart Streets. You'll also hear why Amey and Kent County Council win Adrian's Accolade. Follow Highways News on https://twitter.com/highways_news (Twitter), https://www.linkedin.com/company/42942684/admin/ (LinkedIn) and https://highways-news.com/subscribe/ (subscribe to our daily newsletter here). Links: ADEPT Live Labs: https://www.adeptnet.org.uk/livelabs (https://www.adeptnet.org.uk/livelabs) The Value of Trees project is funded by the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund https://www.reesjeffreys.co.uk/ (https://www.reesjeffreys.co.uk/) Information on how ADEPT is working on Climate Change can be found here: https://www.adeptnet.org.uk/projects/climate-change-hub...

“With our size and scale, we can deliver value for money through social value, but also leave a lasting legacy in communities.”The scrutiny that comes with multi-billion pound projects in the public sector gives National Highways a strong impetus to put social value first in its operations. So how do we achieve the same in the rest of the industry?In a Talent Talks first, we feature a panel of 3 guests from the same procurement department - Malcolm Dare, Sanyalax Morrison, and Andrew Stephenson - to share the reasons behind National Highways' increasing focus on social value.Join us as we discuss the methods of spreading the issue across the sector, the sometimes-overlooked aspects of engaging with SMEs, the proactivity necessary to hit carbon neutrality targets, and much more.This episode of Talent Talks covers:How to define social value and the 4 huge reasons to prioritise itThe process of elevating social value to be achieved on a sector-wide levelWhy we need to act now in order to hit 2030 goals for carbon neutralityIncreasing engagement with SMEsThe Talent Talks Podcast is proudly sponsored by Barkers Commercial Consultancy. Barkers are a multi-award-winning ethical, procurement consultancy offering specialist services including cost and procurement transformation, contract lifecycle management, procurement managed services, bid writing services and digital procurement https://barkersprocurement.com/Links and references at: https://talentdrive.co.uk/

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/highways-voices/id1551975855 (Apple Podcasts,) https://open.spotify.com/show/0U6BbFBYLr5eeX0HuZtPv8 (Spotify), https://highways-voices.captivate.fm/amazon (Amazon Music), https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5jYXB0aXZhdGUuZm0vaGlnaHdheXMtdm9pY2Vz (Google Podcasts) or https://pca.st/7a3xxskl (Pocket Casts) and never miss an episode! As an early careers professional, how do you work and learn when you're not among people absorbing the office life? Many worried about the situation, but our guest on the Highways Voices podcast this week makes us feel better about it all. "I'd say it's a double edged sword," says Alastair King, Product and Marketing Manager at Clearview Intelligence. "Obviously, the negative side of it is that you're not with people, you're not breathing it, you're not feeling it, you're almost relying on having a phone call, at times to just pick up on that piece of information that you need to know. But the other side of it is, and I found meeting platforms to be very clinical, in that it was a set meeting at a set time with a set audience. You could prepare yourself better for that. You could prepare the content better." Alastair discusses his career development during lockdown, which actually started on the day he started a new role in the company, and also how he has developed new products. He's also got some wise words about procurement, when solutions cover a wide variety of benefits, but don't fit into any single budget. "And, you know, communication, especially through larger organisations, larger authorities, the people that we're talking to might not necessarily have that complete bigger picture and overview of budgets and and how to look at installing solutions and best approaching what solutions would suit an application better." Have a listen to him and also find out why Kier Highways and National Highways win this week's Adrian's Accolade. Follow Highways News on https://twitter.com/highways_news (Twitter), https://www.linkedin.com/company/42942684/admin/ (LinkedIn) and https://highways-news.com/subscribe/ (subscribe to our daily newsletter here). Read more about the Manual for Smart Streets https://ttf.uk.net/resources/mfss/here (here).

Highlights of Oxford Metrics' full year results for the year ended 30 September 2021. This illustrates the technology, the 5 year growth strategy to achieve 2.5x revenue and to return adjusted Pre Tax Profit to 15%, and closes with the shorter term outlook. 00:11 - Period overview 01:11 - Five-year growth plan & the technology 02:36 - Sensing capabilites, analysis & embed technology 03:09 - Financial aims 03:45 - Outlook: Vicon, Yotta & the group Oxford Metrics develops software that enables the interface between the real world and its virtual twin. Our smart sensing software helps over 10,000 customers in more than 70 countries, including all of the world's top 10 games companies and all of the top 20 universities worldwide. Founded in 1984, we started our journey in healthcare, expanded into entertainment, winning an OSCAR® and an Emmy®, then moved into defence and engineering. We have a track record of creating value by incubating, growing and then augmenting through acquisition, unique technology businesses. The Group trades through two market-leading divisions: Vicon and Yotta. Vicon is a world leader in motion measurement analysis to thousands of customers worldwide, including Guy's Hospital, Industrial Light & Magic, MIT and NASA. Yotta's cloud-based infrastructure asset management software enables central and local government agencies and other infrastructure owners to digitally manage their assets. Yotta has a large number of high-profile clients including VicRoads in Australia , Auckland Motorway System in New Zealand, and, in the UK, National Highways and over 160 local authorities.   The Group is headquartered in Oxford with offices in Leamington Spa, Gloucester, California, Colorado, and Auckland. Since 2001, Oxford Metrics (LSE: OMG), has been a quoted company listed on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/highways-voices/id1551975855 (Apple Podcasts,) https://open.spotify.com/show/0U6BbFBYLr5eeX0HuZtPv8 (Spotify), https://highways-voices.captivate.fm/amazon (Amazon Music), https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5jYXB0aXZhdGUuZm0vaGlnaHdheXMtdm9pY2Vz (Google Podcasts) or https://pca.st/7a3xxskl (Pocket Casts) and never miss an episode! The acting director for roads development in National Highways has explained how a new initiative to add storage capacity to enable more rapid EV charging at service stations is all about supporting range anxiety and making sure that the network's users have got regular intervals at which they can actually charge their vehicles. Dr Joanna White was discussing the https://highways-news.com/nh-plans-energy-storage-to-support-rapid-motorway-ev-charging/ (government-owned organisation p)lans to invest in Energy Storage Systems – essentially giant battery packs – for service stations where the grid supply is not enough for rapid charging infrastructure. "It's a really interesting project that we're leading, working with the Office for zero emission vehicles to look at how we can support motorway service areas with the their capacity to enable delivery of at least six rapid charging electric vehicle charging points by 2023," she explains. "So we're working with those have to focus on those service areas, which have got lower grid capacity grid connection... or have got lower footfall, and where we can install a battery type solution to charge up overnight or in low periods of demand and enhance the capacity connection that that motorway service area has." The wide-ranging discussion covers initiatives to decarbonise freight, standards in low carbon transport, liaising with local authorities and then National Highways' own decarbonisation efforts. "We are looking at our own corporate carbon, we're looking at where we get our energy from that that runs our offices, runs the lighting in our offices," she says. "We're looking at converting the lighting on the network to LED lighting and obviously reducing emissions to that we've invested in plug in hybrid electric vehicles for our traffic officer service."

Show #1294 If you get any value from this podcast please consider supporting my work on Patreon. Plus all Patreon supporters get their own unique ad-free podcast feed. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Tuesday 30th November. It's Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to. Thank you to MYEV.com for helping make this show, they've built the first marketplace specifically for Electric Vehicles. It's a totally free marketplace that simplifies the buying and selling process, and help you learn about EVs along the way too. CHINA TO ALLOCATE 38.5 BILLION YUAN WORTH OF NEV SUBSIDIES IN 2022 - China plans to appropriate around 38.5 billion yuan ($6.033 billion) next year to subsidize the projects for saving energy and cutting carbon emissions, according to a notice recently issued by China's Ministry of Finance. - China hopes new energy vehicle (NEV) sales can reach around 20% of all car sales in 2025, China's State Council said in Nov. 2020 in a plan for development of the NEV sector.For the first ten months of 2021, NEV sales in China amounted to 2.542 million units, accounting for 12.12% of the country's total new car sales Original Source : https://autonews.gasgoo.com/m/70019227.html AROUND 1,000 SPANISH PETROL STATIONS INSTALL ELECTRIC CAR CHARGING POINTS - Around 1,000 Spanish petrol stations must install electric car charging points - The Government of Spain continues to move forward with its strategy for the growth of the electric car in Spain. A proposal has reportedly just been released to public information by the Ministry for the Environment (Miteco). - It included a ministerial order that establishes a list of fuel supply facilities, along with fuels required to install electric recharging infrastructures, as well as the exceptions and technical impossibilities for its fulfillment. - more than 1,000 petrol stations across Spain, with sales of more than five million litres per year, or relevant weight, must install at least one charging point for electric vehicles. - Within a period of 21 months from the entry into force of the aforementioned Law, that is, February 2023, service stations with sales of more than 10 million litres of petrol and diesel in 2019 must install at least one 150 kW recharging point. Original Source : https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2021/11/28/around-1000-spanish-petrol-stations-must-install-electric-car-charging-points/ THE UK'S NATIONAL HIGHWAYS TO TRY BATTERY STORAGE - The UK government has said that around 20 energy storage systems are to be deployed at service stations where the grid supply is not always sufficient to support high power charging stations. - National Highways aims to invest £11 million and is currently discussing the possibilities with prospective suppliers. Within the next two years, the plan is to install what will essentially be giant battery units that will connect to the motorway services operators' charge points. - Malcolm Wilkinson, Head of Energy for National Highways, said: “Whilst we have limited control over the number of petrol and diesel cars on the network, by supporting the expansion of the rapid charge points network, we hope to increase EV drivers' confidence for all types of journeys, both long and short.” Original Source : https://www.electrive.com/2021/11/29/the-uks-national-highways-to-try-battery-storage/ BMW I4 CUSTOMER DELIVERIES BEGIN IN GERMANY THREE MONTHS EARLY - Customer deliveries of the first i4 EVs began at the BMW Welt in Munich last weekend, three months earlier than the automaker originally planned. Bernhard Kuhnt, senior vice president BMW Group Market Germany, said that demand for the i4 is very high. - On the occasion, BMW i4 owners were invited to an accompanying program around the fully-electric Gran Coupe in Munich. - The BMW i4 is available in two variants at launch, the single motor i4 eDrive40 and dual motor i4 M50. Both feature an 83.9 kWh lithium ion battery pack (80.7 kwh net capacity) enabling an estimated range of 300 miles (482 km) for the former and 245 miles (394 km) for the latter (both for the US market). - “With the BMW i4, we have absolutely struck a chord. You can see this from the very high demand for this car. We are delighted to be expanding our electrified product line-up with this sporty, fully-electric Gran Coupé at exactly the right time and to present the first vehicles to our customers today – three months earlier than originally planned. The first delivery of a BMW i4 today, and the first BMW iX in about a week, are further milestones for the BMW Group on the road to electromobility.” Original Source : https://insideevs.com/news/551178/bmw-i4-first-customer-deliveries/ BMW EDRIVE ZONES NOW AVAILABLE IN 138 EUROPEAN CITIES - The BMW Group is introducing its innovative eDrive Zones in another 20 European cities, including Copenhagen, Verona and Toulouse. This means that a total of 138 cities in Europe are now benefiting from this trailblazing technology. The service is expected to be rolled out in at least another 30 cities worldwide in the coming year. - In an eDrive Zone, BMW plug-in hybrid vehicles automatically switch to all-electric driving mode upon entering inner city areas. Then, the plug-in hybrid models drive locally emission-free – just like purely electric vehicles – and with low fuel costs, as electric motors are much more efficient than combustion engines for driving in city traffic. The vehicle recognises the designated areas using geofencing technology and GPS. The automated eDrive feature is available as standard in many existing and all future BMW plug-in hybrids. Drivers are rewarded with bonus points for each all-electric kilometre driven – and with double points in an eDrive Zone – which they can redeem for charging credit. In turn, drivers also collect bonus points while charging their vehicle. - The 20 latest cities to be added are: Aberdeen, Bregenz, Brescia, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Copenhagen, Cork, Coventry, Florence, Klagenfurt, Lille, Matosinhos, Naples, Oeiras, Oxford, Sheffield, St. Pölten, Toulouse and Verona. Original Source : https://electriccarsreport.com/2021/11/bmw-edrive-zones-now-available-in-138-european-cities RENAULT MASTER ZE GETS RANGE UPGRADE - The fully electric Renault Master Z.E. will get more battery capacity and greater range from spring 2022. The electric van has been equipped with new 52 kWh batteries, an addition that increases the vehicle's effective range to 190 km. - The battery storage capacity of the Renault Trucks electric Master has increased to to 52 kWh - from 33 kWh. The new capacity thus extends the vehicle's effective range to 190 km (WLTP City cycle range of 244 km). With a fast charger, the Renault Trucks Master Z.E. is now 80% charged in 2 hours and reaches full charge in 3 hours. Original Source : https://www.nextgreencar.com/news/9268/renault-master-ze-gets-range-upgrade/ HYUNDAI HOME ECOSYSTEM DUE IN 2022 WILL COVER SOLAR, CHARGING, ENERGY STORAGE - Hyundai recently unveiled a coordinated home-energy ecosystem, bundling EV charging, solar, and home energy storage. Dubbed Hyundai Home, the service will provide one-stop shopping for these products to Hyundai customers, the automaker said in a press release. It's scheduled to launch in certain markets in 2022. - A service integrating home charging, solar, and energy storage could be a great complement to the Hyundai Ioniq 5 crossover. Charging an electric car from a home solar installation reduces that car's overall carbon footprint and the owner's dependence on the grid. The Ioniq 5 is also equipped for bidirectional charging, potentially allowing it to discharge some power into energy storage battery packs when needed. - The launch of Hyundai Home also builds on the automaker's previous hints that the Ioniq sub-brand will span beyond cars. The Ioniq 5 itself will also be available through an innovative lease that will let intenders try before they buy. Hyundai has said research indicates likely EV buyers are big users of subscription services, so a different leasing model was worth trying. Original Source : https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1134253_hyundai-home-ecosystem-due-in-2022-will-cover-solar-charging-energy-storage TESLA WITHDRAWS APPLICATION IN SUBSIDIES FOR GERMAN FACTORY - Tesla has withdrawn an application for over $1 billion in subsidies for battery production at Gigafactory Berlin. According to Electrek, a spokesperson for the Germany Economy Ministry confirmed the news in a statement. - After the news came out, CEO Musk made a comment that suggested Tesla withdrew the applications because it does not want any subsidies. Meanwhile, the Financial Times went into the details of the programme and found a clause that might be the cause of withdrawal. Companies are not eligible for the funds if they have already deployed the same battery production at another plant, the report citing FT, said. - The publication suggested that ongoing delays in achieving approval to start production at Gigafactory Berlin could make Tesla ineligible for the funds since it is also deploying battery production at Gigafactory Texas and Shanghai. Original Source : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/auto/news/tesla-withdraws-application-in-subsidies-for-german-factory-report/articleshow/87977122.cms TESLA PRODUCTION IN BERLIN LOOKING TO TAKE OFF THIS YEAR Original Source : https://www.electrive.com/2021/11/29/tesla-production-in-berlin-looking-to-take-off-this-year/ ELON MUSK TELLS TESLA EMPLOYEES TO STOP RUSHING TO INCREASE QUARTERLY DELIVERIES Original Source : https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/29/22807387/tesla-quarterly-deliveries-end-rush-elon-musk-memo QUESTION OF THE WEEK WITH EMOBILITYNORWAY.COM Which EV makers are on Santa's naughty or nice lists – and tell me why! Email me a suggestion for a possible question and I might pick yours!  hello@evnewsdaily.com It would mean a lot if you could take 2mins to leave a quick review on whichever platform you download the podcast. And  if you have an Amazon Echo, download our Alexa Skill, search for EV News Daily and add it as a flash briefing. Come and say hi on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter just search EV News Daily, have a wonderful day, I'll catch you tomorrow and remember…there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid. PREMIUM PARTNERS PHIL ROBERTS / ELECTRIC FUTURE BRAD CROSBY PORSCHE OF THE VILLAGE CINCINNATI AUDI CINCINNATI EAST VOLVO CARS CINCINNATI EAST NATIONAL CAR CHARGING ON THE US MAINLAND AND ALOHA CHARGE IN HAWAII DEREK REILLY FROM THE EV REVIEW IRELAND YOUTUBE CHANNEL RICHARD AT RSEV.CO.UK – FOR BUYING AND SELLING EVS IN THE UK EMOBILITYNORWAY.COM/

Dr. Jon Sykes is Head of Service Standards at National Highways. In this third episode of Understanding Users, Jon and I chat about his fascinating and diverse career in service design; the power of collaborative design workshops, and the real benefit that using evidence-based user insight can bring when you're trying to win round sceptical project stakeholders.   He also plays my 3 card challenge to share his favourite UX tool, favoured technique and a trend he sees in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

On the Road series - Living with Fibromyalgia  Sue McIntosh developed fibromyalgia after being involved in a traffic collision. No longer able to continue her career as an advanced driver in the Police force, she has since learnt how to self manage her symptoms and daily activities, such as driving, shopping and working.Mindfulness has been hugely beneficial to Sue, as has a change of career into photography as she can fit it around her disability.Driving now has its limitations, here Sue explains why On the Road with the National Highways and the Sunflower is a good idea.If you are experiencing problems discussed in this podcast contact your GP.For supportFibromyalgia Action UKOrder a free On the Road with the National Highways Sunflower car stickerContactSue McIntosh Photography on Instagram @suemcintoshphotographyHosted by Chantal Boyle, Hidden Disabilities Sunflower.Want to share your story? email conversations@hiddendisabilitiesstore.comVisit the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower website.

In the third episode of the Deloitte Public Sector Data series, Davin Crowley-Sweet, Chief Data Officer at National Highways joins Ed Roddis, Public Sector Research Director at Deloitte to discuss the value of data. Davin shares his experience of conducting a comprehensive study to quantify the economic value of the data estate at National Highways.

Back on September 15th Protesters demanding government action on home insulation blocked four junctions of the M25, leading to dozens of arrests during Monday's morning commute. Activists from Insulate Britain sat on the road holding banners at several junctions on the UK's busiest motorway. The diversions and road closures caused traffic chaos as people tried to get to work during rush hour. National Highways said there was disruption at Junction 3 for Swanley in Kent, Junction 6 for Godstone in Surrey, Junction 14 for Heathrow Terminal 5, Junction 20 for Kings Langley in Hertfordshire, and Junction 31 for Purfleet in Essex. Police forces from across the South East were called to deal with the disruption, and at least 74 arrests were made. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/angrybritishconservative/message

Southeastern has launched an investigation following claims an employee ignored a woman having an epileptic seizure on a train. A video has been posted on Instagram by the woman who confronted the worker after recovering. Also in today's podcast, climate change protesters who cause disruption on the M25 could now face a prison sentence. National Highways has been granted an injunction against Insulate Britain who've blockaded the motorway at Dartford and Swanley in recent weeks. Transport secretary Grant Shapps has been speaking about it in Parliament. Kent's police and crime commissioner is calling for the sale of e scooters to be stopped. A trial of the vehicles in Canterbury has been scaled back from 200 to 100 - hear what Matthew Scott has to say about them. We look ahead to the lowdown on our Facebook live which will feature the barber from Medway giving mental health advice. And the Gillingham boss has been speaking following their 1-1 draw with Charlton last night.

There is a ‘real opportunity' for the highways supply chain to work with National Highways to ensure that it is operating its network in a more advanced, insightful and responsive way to help drive a more digitally enabled road network by 2025. These are the thoughts of Elliot Shaw, Executive Director of Strategy and Planning at National Highways, who was this week's guest on Highways Voices as it returned after a summer break. Mr Shaw was speaking about the newly launched Digital Roads Strategy that promises to a virtual twin of the road network that can predict the time and location of potholes and other maintenance issues is just one of the innovations National Highways says is poised to transform its future operations. Other initiatives that could lead the charge on what it calls a ‘digital revolution' for roads include intelligent road materials able to repair themselves and more connected and autonomous plant. These are some of the systems set to be rolled out as part of National Highways' Digital Roads strategy which is being outlined on a new website and ‘virtual learning environment'. “We really hope to achieve a step change with this where you really do see that technology has transformed the way that we use our roads. We really want this strategy to be the catalyst not only for our own network by the industry at large and we need to work with our supply chain, and others to really make that move forward. So, I would hope we will see a significantly more digitally enabled road network by 2025. And that's in each of the three areas that we set out within the strategy-the design and construction space, also within the operations, and then finally, also how we engage with our customers as well. “ “We want the ability to deliver schemes faster, deliver them more efficiently, and I think from a safety perspective, as well, you know, actually, the more that we can do these things in a controlled digitally enabled way the more we can expect to see fewer people doing some of the more challenging and dangerous activities on site. So, we would expect three safety, safety impacts, as well, as on the operation side.” Mr Shaw said a chance to have a more connected, digital roadmap would be an opportunity to do things differently. “We have the chance to just do different things now, things that we would never have been able to do before. I think on that what we've been really reflecting on is, how can this progress deliver better value for our customers? What's the unique information that we can provide? And how should we get that across to our customers?”

This week Bishop & Taylor discuss Highways England's re-brand, the sale of Osborne Infrastructure Ltd and an industry programme to devise equality, diversity and inclusion metrics

In this episode Tavid Dobson, Lead Safety Management Specialist at RSSB and Anne-Marie Penny, Senior Road Safety Policy Adviser at National Highways, talk about how collaboration between their organisations is working to better manage the risk that arises from driving for work.01:26 About Anne-Marie and how she came to work in road safety.02:08 About Tavid and how he came to work on road driving risk.03:04 RSSB's work on road risk, now a priority topic in Leading Health and Safety on Britain's Railway.04:05 The Driving for Better Business (DfBB) programme, its vision, its aims, and accident statistics for people driving for work.06:42 Using DfBB as a common framework and the need for a collaborative approach.07:35 Resources available from DfBB, and the value of collaboration with RSSB.09:16 The industry benefits from working with DfBB now and in the future.10:15 The challenges that the rail industry faces in managing road risk.11:47 The DfBB programme is no more than meeting existing legal requirements.Resources mentioned in this episode:Leading Health and Safety on Britain's Railway: Occupational Road Risk Management page: https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/leading-health-and-safety-on-britains-railway/occupational-road-risk-management 'Managing occupational road risk associated with road driver fatigue' research project T997  https://www.sparkrail.org/pages/libraryresults.aspx?k=T997 Driving for Better Business website: https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/ Road Risk Group web page:  https://www.rssb.co.uk/what-we-do/groups-and-committees/safety/ssrg/rrg Association for Road Risk Management: https://www.arrm.org.uk/  Related resources:RoSPA, Management of Occupational Road Risk web page:  https://www.rospa.com/occupational-safety/our-projects/morr Infrastructure Safety Leadership Group:  https://www.rssb.co.uk/what-we-do/groups-and-committees/safety/ssrg/islg RoadSafe website: https://www.roadsafe.com/ 

Toll collection on national highways across the country has resumed on Monday amid the ongoing coronavirus lockdown. India's slowly easing restrictions brought in to contain the coronavirus pandemic. From today in order to revive stalled economic activities. The National Highways Authority of India had suspended toll collection on all national highways. After the 21-day nationwide coronavirus lockdown announced on March 24. India is under a lockdown imposed on March 25 and later extended on April 14. To prevent the spread of coronavirus which has claimed over 500 lives in the country. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/latestnewssuno/support

To facilitate movement and delivery of essential items, Assam Police will be issuing Essential Service Passes through the local Police. The State government has spelt it out in clear terms that any violation of the 21-day lockdown is punishable under the Disaster Management Act. The government has also assured the people of the State that there won't be any dearth of essential commodities in the State during the lockdown. Purabi Dairy of the West Assam Milk Producers' Cooperative Union Ltd., Guwahati, on Thursday said that it has taken adequate measures to ensure that there would be no disruption in the supply of milk and milk products in Guwahati and outstation markets where Purabi has been present. Bhubaneswar Kalita of BJP has pledged Rs 1 cr 10 lakh towards fighting coronavirus pandemic. He sent out a tweet on this. Gaurav Vohra, a 40-year-old man, has been arrested by Delhi police for attacking a woman from Manipur and calling her “corona” a few days ago. Vohra, who works at a pressure cooker manufacturing unit, even spat at her. The woman had filed a complaint with the police after which investigations began. Police caught him after analyzing CCTV footage from the area. A white scooty was also seized from his possession. Netizens have condemned the incident. Some even shared details of the incident on Twitter. The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court granted bail to KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi. Along with him Dhajya Konwar, Bitu Sonowal, Manas Konwar have also been granted bail. Due to three-week lockdown, toll collection across National Highways has been suspended. A tweet was sent out by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India in this regard. CBSE and NIOS will postpone exams and evaluation until 31March due to lockdown because of coronavirus pandemic. A British national tested negative for coronavirus after going through HIV antiretroviral drug treatment in Kerala. The Ernakulam Medical College Hospital informed that the British patient responded well to a combination of drugs Ritonavir and Lopinavir. The patient was given the drugs for seven days but after three days he tested negative for the virus. The man along with a group of tourists was holidaying in Munnar, Kerala. Now the entire group has been put under quarantine at a hotel. Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has written to finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the possibility of spread of coronavirus through currency notes. “Various credible studies have revealed that currency notes carry major risk of containing various virus, which may lead to number of infectious diseases. In the wake of coronavirus and for other precautionary reasons, we request you to order ‘a larger investigation' to assess the chances of diseases spreading via notes,” said CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal. The Confederation has also asked Sitharaman to consider change in policies to focus on discovering alternative modes of payment as well as considering polymer notes.WHO has also urged people to use contactless technology instead of using cash notes amid coronavirus pandemic. As countries face lockdown, people are binging on Netflix. Viewers have now pointed out bizarre similarities between sub-plots of a Korean drama and the current coronavirus epidemic. In 2018, Terrius Behind Me or My Secret Terrius had started airing. In the 53rd minute of the show's 10th episode a scene unfolds around manmade virus. The doctors in the scene are seen talking about coronavirus, MERS, SARS and common flu “all fall in the same family with the same gene information” and that coronavirus causes respiratory disease