London bids to stop attitudes derailing repair success

London Highway authorities are seeking to prevent  “intransigent attitudes and selfish approaches” from undermining the collaborative delivery of highway maintenance.

The authorities want to prevent “the attitude and behaviours of parties” undermining the successful delivery of the new collaborative contracts for the capital launching in April. Atkins has been appointed as organisational and change management consultant to facilitate training for clients.

The Atkins work, supported by the Highway Maintenance Efficiency Programme, will inform a ‘Creating a Culture to Deliver’ toolkit to detail how to successfully partner on collaborative contracts, covering the necessary “behaviours, attitudes, communications and actions”.

The programme board for the capital’s project to reduce the cost of managing London’s highways identified early on in the development of their collaborative contracts the threat of attitudes undermining more efficient and effective working.

A report to London Council’s transport and environment committee reveals that the Transforming London’s highways management board, run from Transport for London, estimates that “losses due to cultural inefficiency may be in the order of 5 to 10% of contract value...  more if adversarial situations and aggressive compensation events result”.

Consultant the Collaborative Working Centre identified that open book cost management in which clients and providers freely share information allows more efficient ordering of works.

Martin Holland, head of highways and energy services at the London Borough of Islington, told LTT: “The best written contracts can be blighted by blinkered vision, intransigent attitudes and selfish approaches. I’ve overheard people saying that they will blame the other party or their commercial team thinks more claims the better.

“The toolkit will emphasise collaboration comes from understanding what others are doing as well as you: that means sharing information.”

The toolkit will be discussed at the Future of Highways Delivery, 14 March.