BAM Nuttall Highway Services is looking to become a major player in the road maintenance market within five years.

BAM Nuttall is well known as a major contractor, with a long history of completing prestigious civil engineering projects throughout the UK. Less well known is BAM Nuttall's track record in the world of highway maintenance, though the company has been continuously active in this field for almost a quarter of a century.

Things are about to change however, as BAM's management has decided to expand the company's business in this sector, aiming to become a leading player in the highway maintenance market within five years.

In pursuing this objective, BAM Nuttall will draw on the expertise and knowledge it has built up over 25 years of operating its regional highway maintenance business in the North West.

Since the early days of maintenance privatisation, BAM Nuttall has concentrated on the quality of service it delivers, preferring always to work closely in partnership with its clients and supply chain to seek ways to improve efficiency. The company can point to a string of successful term contracts, for both trunk road and local network clients, where this approach, backed by the widespread application of modern techniques, equipment and systems, has brought about a step change in the efficiency of the service provided.

The most recent example of this has been in the county of Cheshire, where BAM Nuttall has held the highway maintenance term contract since 2004.The process of change was instigated immediately after the award of the contract, beginning with a detailed assessment of the existing arrangements for ordering, executing and recording the various daily maintenance activities undertaken on the £25m per year Contract.

New systems have been developed to streamline activities, reduce waste and improve efficiency, a process that has continued unabated throughout the life of the contract. The cooperation and support of the client has been a vital factor and the forward thinking officers of Cheshire County Council which has now split into two authorities (now Cheshire East and Cheshire West & Chester Councils) have been actively involved in helping BAM project manager Steve Addison and contracts manager Matt Stacey to achieve the improvements gained.

Examples of the progressive changes introduced in Cheshire included a review of operational working practices to maximise the output of mobile maintenance crews, while improving the quality and accuracy of work orders to ensure crews arrive at work sites at the right time and with the correct resources.

The vehicle fleet is fitted out with carefully chosen equipment to enable multi-task activities to be undertaken safely in all conditions. All vehicles are fitted with tracking systems to aid effective deployment and monitoring of work, and all crews carry portable computers that provide work information and record their activities. The latest developments feature hand-held data recorders that enable asset information, for example individual streetlight condition, to be automatically uploaded into the client's asset register from the mobile units.

This system is now being extended to gully maintenance, with the objective of building a knowledge bank that will enable informed decisions to be made on the optimum emptying frequency of each gully, thus avoiding unnecessary visits.

The implementation of measures such as these has streamlined the operation in Cheshire to the extent that a 20% reduction in workforce numbers (achieved entirely through early retirement or voluntary redundancy) has been possible, without reduction in output. Overall an estimated 25% improvement in efficiency has been realised.

All of this has been achieved without compromising any of the high quality standards that the client demands.

The people of Cheshire expect to get good value from their road maintenance providers and BAM Nuttall's search for better and more efficient ways of delivering good value has been relentless. For example, trials of various techniques for repairing road surface defects, a perennial problem, led to the selection of optimum methods that provided the best compromise of cost and effectiveness. Performance in this area was recognised by the Cyclists' Touring Club, where Cheshire West and Chester Council top CTC's league as the leading UK authority for repairing potholes.

The drive for delivering high quality and good value extends into all aspects of BAM Nuttall Highway Services' work. Current developments being worked on with the client include the installation of energy efficient LED lighting and a testing programme for utility trench reinstatements that promises to reduce significantly the client's expenditure on surface repairs.

Winter maintenance is also a high profile activity and here Steve Addison is proud of his team's record of keeping routes open at all times, even in the exceptional cold periods of the last two winters.'Good management of gritting sorties and spread rates is essential for efficient winter maintenance but we made sure we didn't run out of salt;' says Addison, 'even ordering in extra supplies from foodstuffs manufacturers when rock salt stockpiles ran low. We also drafted in our supply chain partners to help keep roads and footpaths safe during the worst periods of ice and snow. We don't want to let anyone down'.

Matt Stacey agrees.'Our policy is to focus on the customer', he says.'By understanding the priorities of our client, and of the people of Cheshire, we are able to refine and continuously improve our performance to ensure that their needs are met:'

It is this customer focused approach that BAM now intends to bring to a wider market.

In January 2011, a new business unit, BAM Nuttall Highway Services, was formed to export a successful formula into the national arena. Main board director Geoff Renshaw expects the new unit, headed by divisional manager Chris Edwards, to become a major force in highway maintenance within five years.

 'We are not the biggest operator in this sector,' says Edwards, 'but we believe that we can provide the type of service that clients are looking for. The pressure to obtain good value for shrinking budgets, while ensuring that high standards are maintained, has never been higher.

'The key to growing a business is to have a first class product. BAM Nuttall has been delivering superlative highway maintenance services to local and trunk road network operators in the North West for 25 years. We now plan to do so on a larger scale,' adds Edwards.

Article courtesy of Transportation Professional - april 2011

Further Info
Peter Bishop - Head of Public Relations & Corporate Communication
BAM Nuttall Limited
St James House, Knoll Road, Camberley,
Surrey GU15 3XW
Tel: 01276 63484
Fax:01276 66060
peter.bishop@bamnuttall.co.uk