The organisation is using the mobile visitor centre for the second year following 2017’s successful trial to engage with the public, touring Essex and Suffolk in March before heading to Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire last month with residents and commuters attending to share their thoughts and learn about the essential maintenance work happening near them.
Last month’s tour included working with the emergency services in Bedford to display Highways England’s motorbike safety campaign in Harpur Square. The display featured the police’s enforcement bike, funded by Highways England, and clothing mimicking that which had been damaged in serious accidents, challenging riders to think about what they wear to ensure their safety.
The tour uses a minibus facility which opens out into a larger exhibition featuring displays and presentations about road works in the area and road safety.
When the tour goes to Peterborough city centre in May, there will be road working equipment on display and traffic officers on hand to speak with attendees.
Highways England Routine Delivery Manager, Nigel Allsopp, said: “The tour has been well received so far, and we’re hoping to have spoken with over 3,000 people by the time it concludes in a fortnight. We’ve spoken with a range of people and community groups, and managed to answer a lot of questions that people had about road works in their area.
“We’ve been liaising with our partner organisations including councils, local authorities and emergency services to speak to the public with one voice. We hope that the interest we have seen so far will continue as we finish our tour of the East region.”
In the last financial year (2017/18), Highways England spent £61.4 million on essential maintenance across the East, including £3.5 million on new noise barriers on the M40 in Buckinghamshire, £3.1 million for a new roundabout with Harwich Road and the A120 near Wix, and a £3.5 million repair to the accident damaged Saddlebow Interchange on the A47 near King’s Lynn.
This essential maintenance work is in addition to the longer term investment work, including new dual carriageways on several sections of the A47, widening the A12 in Essex, the £1.5 billion Cambridge to Huntingdon A14 upgrade, and the £4.4 - £6.2 billion Lower Thames Crossing.
Now drivers can speak to Highways England staff about this whole range of road works that are happening soon and further in the future, with £54.2 million committed to maintaining the East’s roads over the next year.
In the next financial year (2018/19), Highways England’s maintenance work will include £2.75 million on resurfacing the A14 between Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds, £2.5 million on bridge repairs on the M1, A14 and A1, £2.25 million on resurfacing the A12, and a further £2.24 million on replacing digital message signs on the same road. Our work in the next year will include laying enough tarmac to fill 20 football pitches, enough white lining to fill an Olympic swimming pool, and enough cats’ eyes to reflect enough light collectively to be seen from space.
This month, the exhibition is set to visit:
- The Abingdon Air Show in Oxfordshire on Sunday 6 May
- Peterborough city centre on Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 May
- Sainsbury’s Great Yarmouth on Thursday 10 May
- The Britten Centre, Lowestoft on Friday 11 May
- Alconbury Airfield Enterprise Campus on Monday 14 May
- Tesco Extra, Huntingdon on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 May.
These dates may be subject to change, and interested visitors are asked to stay up to date with the latest information by following @HighwaysEast on Twitter.
Members of the public are invited to attend the mobile visitor centre to speak with Highways England staff, which will include traffic officers at some of the exhibitions.