The Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) is delighted to welcome five new members to the LCRIG highways community this week.
Sweco UK Ltd, NAL Ltd, Stirling Lloyd, GCP and Messagemaker Displays Ltd have joined as Associate Members, and Newport City Council has joined as a Council Member.
Sweco UK Ltd, is a design, engineering, environment and regulatory consultancy.
Brian Rechere, Transportation & Urbanisation Division Manager, said: “With unrivalled sustainability, digitalisation and urbanisation insights and unique multi-disciplinary expertise across all sectors, Sweco leads and collaborates on landmark projects across the world – from localised modelling and planning to full infrastructure design and implementation.
Roads provide much of the veins and arteries that enables the “life-blood” of society to flow. As our cities and towns expand, to create an urban environment fit for the 21st century, local roads need to safely connect rather than segregate communities and are increasingly being transformed into public realms where people can healthily gather and interact. Add to this a more informed consumer, technological and digital transformation, greener travel, and a desire for less polluted streets, and it all adds up to a myriad of challenges and opportunities for local government to wade through.
To achieve successful outcomes and to lock in future benefits, requires greater innovation and collaboration between local authorities and their supply chain. The sharing of knowledge and the use of common data platforms will help strengthen future collaboration. This will create fantastic opportunities for employees to develop new skills and new ways of working, as well as develop solutions and outcomes fit for decades to come. We keenly understand the need to create an agile environment at Sweco in which colleagues can grow, develop, and transform.
By becoming a member of the LCRIG community, we will access to a wealth of knowledge and data to help us continue to grow and improve our understanding of our clients and society’s needs. In turn, Sweco will share its expertise and experience as a global organisation, most importantly co-creating in an open and collaborative community. LCRIG’s passion and commitment to innovation and collaboration is our main driver in joining – after all it’s how we at Sweco think, work and live too”
NAL Ltd is a specialist manufacturer and supplier of infrastructure products. Established in 1996, NAL immediately impacted the highways industry with the unique and innovative Retention Socket. Since then, our range of products has grown and developed to simplify and reduce installation and maintenance costs involved in Traffic Signals, Street Lighting, Signage and Street Furniture Installations.
Ryan Churchill, Sales Manager, said: “By joining LCRIG, it enables us to collaborate with the Industry Leaders and Specifiers within the industry who believe in the importance of continuous innovation to improve our roads.”
Stirling Lloyd is well known in the Highways industry and were acquired by GCP Applied Technologies in 2017, subsequently GCP in it’s entirety has been acquired by Saint Gobain, this was completed in October 2022.
Jonathan Till, National Sales Manager – Highways, said: “Stirling Lloyd, GCP are pleased to have joined LCRIG as it has developed into the leading platform for collaboration between Local Government and the Supply chain in the Highways Industry where innovation and Best Practice can be shared. We hope to work with Local Authorities who look to make our roads better by using Whole Life Cost carbon efficient practices and embrace innovation”.
Messagemaker Displays Ltd is a supplier of LED signage solutions, specialising in energy-efficient traffic management signage.
Josh Lyne, UK Sales Manager, said: “Messagemaker Displays keeps innovation, collaboration and sustainability at the heart of everything they do, much like LCRIG and their members, so being a member of LCRIG is a no brainer. The opportunities to actively engage with such a vibrant and forward thinking community will help the highways community create innovative solutions to ultimately make our roads safer and greener, and we can do it together! The team have dipped their toes into being involved with LCRIG and look forward to diving in! ”
Newport City Council have joined LCRIG as our latest Council member.
Nathan Jones, Senior Technical Officer, said: “I was introduced to LCRIG by Steve Cobb of Gaist, when I recently attended the Fact or Friction event in Reading. This introduction made me aware of the many benefits that LCRIG can bring to each authority such as innovation, collaboration, best practice and potential cost savings. As well as the benefits for each authority, LCRIG also brings greater knowledge to individuals through CPD accredited Technical Training Days, which altogether enable a better managed, regulated and safer authority”.
LCRIG provides Members with a unique platform to engage with councils, the DfT and the wider highways community.
By joining LCRIG you will connect with a community of like-minded councils, organisations and individuals, all of whom are driving change through innovation and technological advances across the local roads network.
LCRIG has four membership types:
Local highway authorities and ‘Teckal’ organisations.
Organisations providing products or services to the highways sector.
Government and professional bodies, associations, working/research groups.
Universities and academic research organisations.
As a Community Interest Company (CIC), accredited to ISO44001, the international standard for collaboration, LCRIG’s purpose is to ‘give back to the community’ and we are not for profit.
View our Membership Services here or contact us to find out more.