The balloon goes up in Worcester....

Today to help a charity walk by Craig Macdonald we held a charity day at Highways House. A balloon launch was carried out at lunchtime......good luck Craig in January....

Re tender update.

Good news, our bid will be recommended to Cabinet to award, now subject to their approval..

Ringway Worcestershire Annual Festive Carbon Reduction Campaign

Next Monday heralds the start of our annual Festive carbon reduction campaign. This year the campaign targets carbon awareness and we will be appointing each week a team of "Carbon Caretakers" to audit offices and depots using their carbon scorecards

.

Prizes will be awarded throughout the month on a weekly basis and at the end of the month we will announce the "Carbon Champion"

We will also be making available a free supply of low energy bulbs at each workplace "free to a good home"...please use wisely.

This campaign will be the last during the life of this current contract....LETS MAKE IT THE BEST

National Road Safety Week

Next week is national Road Safety Week. Ringway will be taking an active part and we in Worcestershire will be carrying out road safety road shows around the County as follows

 

Tuesday 19th November	Time	Delivered by
Lydiate Ash	8.00 – 9.00am	Dave Rowley
Newland	8.00 – 9.00am	Stuart Freeman
Highways House	11.30 – 12.30pm	Dave Rowley
Stanford	3.00 – 4.00pm	Dave Rowley
Hinton	3.00 – 4.00pm	Stuart Freeman
Wednesday 20th November
Warndon	12.30pm - 1.30pm	Dave Rowley

At each roadshow we will be carrying out a road safety presentation and carrying out a road safety quiz with road safety prizes.

                                             DRIVE SAFELY

The Ringway Worcestershire team win Exceptional Project Award......

Congratulations to all of the team that have delivered the successful Lowesmoor scheme.

 

Details of the award are as follows......

 

 

The Programme Board and Package Panel have awarded the Lowesmoor Project Team an Exceptional Project Award. The presentation will be made by Ian Bamforth in the Council Chamber, County Hall.

 

Dear Max

I would like to nominate the Lowesmoor Project Team for the Package Panel Exceptional Project Award. This has been a complex project and has meant balancing a number of conflicting objectives including improving the public realm whilst minimising future maintenance liabilities, decreasing flood risk and minimising disruption to businesses, residents and commuters during construction. A number of colleagues have contributed towards the scheme including Mark Mills and Martin Rowe (Project Managers), Michele Jones, Nicky Fletcher, Gavin Loach, Julian Tipton, Steve Ruff and Richard Cartland (WCC), Jamie Wylie, Paul Bufton, Mark Broomby and Andy Seek (CH2M), Jim Blackwell and Alison Vincent (Worcester City), Sid Roberts, Terry Godwin, Jacquie Hyslop, Ray Gwynne and team (Ringway). The team has also received valuable support and advice from Pete Ashcroft, Nick Yarwood, Nick Twaite, Pete Jago, Tom Comerford and Ian Bamforth. Unsurprisingly there was the odd difference of opinion along the way but it is a testament to all those involved that they found a way forward and that the project has reached a successful conclusion.

Regards

 

Programme and Commissioning Manager

Worcestershire County Council

 

Bewdley Bypass Reopens Ahead Of Schedule.

Despite terrible weather conditions and difficulties with material deliveries the Worcestershire Highways team worked together to overcome all the problems and reopen Bewdley Bypass ahead of schedule.

Conditions proved particularly testing on Monday, but the team knowing the need to get the bypass reopen for business worked through the atrocious weather to deliver an excellent finished product.

Worcestershire by night......

With the onset of Autumn and the return of early nightfall, a lot of our works are being carried out under floodlight.

Last night we had a team working late into the night to successfully carry out repairs to the Evesham bridge repair route in less than 6 hours.

Throughout the months of September and October we have a 10 man team carrying out an upgrade of Worcester High Street.

 

By day the normal activities of the high street continue, but at night there are full scale construction activities taking place. At the end of every night the team clear the site to provide clear access to all the shops.

 

Works are progressing well with no complaints received.

 

Ray Gwin Retires...

Today sees the completion of the Lowesmoor scheme, the disbanding of Radar and the retirement of Ray Gwin. Ray has worked in and around Worcestershire for many years and we wish him all the best for the future and we thank him and his team for all the excellent works they have carried out.

50 years service and still going strong....

Fifty years ago today Chris Dovey started work for Worcestershire County Council. Chris is still a very active part of the Ringway Worcestershire Senior team, and evidence of this is Chris is heading up the high profile scheme in Worcester High Street that starts tonight.

Hold on to your hats.....

By any stretch of the imagination next week is going to be a momentous week for Ringway in Worcestershire.

Firstly, we reach the final stage of our works in Lowesmoor with carriageway surfacing works taking place....

Secondly,  we start the high profile Worcester High Street scheme, replacing all slabs, pavers and surface finishes between Pump Street and the Elgar Statue...

Thirdly, next Friday we submit our tender for the next Worcestershire Term Services Contract.

Christine....35 years at the sharp end....

Today marks the 35th anniversary of Christine starting with Worcestershire County Council, starting her career at County Hall. Lets hope for many more years in the County working for Ringway.

Martin Lane retires today.......

Martin retires today after many years service in Worcestershire. For the last six years Martin has concentrated his attentions on safety, health and environmental issues. Martin has contributed greatly to our excellent health and safety record.

Martin...enjoy your retirement.

Sign clearing gang get to work....

The new Landrover fleet have proved their worth this week enabling our newly formed sign clearance gang to access difficult locations. Next week this gang will be complemented by the "Golden Route" team working on the A449, together with our "Open for Business" gang.

Multi Purpose Land Rover Fleet Delivered.

Today we have taken delivery of four multi purpose Land Rovers equipped to carry out ART and Parish works together with Winter Maintenance and Emergency Response.

These vehicles will be put to work in Worcestershire to further develop and enhance the highway service delivery.

Ringway Worcestershire Apprentice Day.

Every year in Worcestershire we take on four highway maintenance apprentices and one for fleet. We have now been running this scheme for five years. From time to time we hold an "Apprentice Day" to discuss progress and get feedback.
At our Apprentice Day yesterday, fifteen scheme members attended, some in their first year and some have been with us now for five years. The feedback was excellent, all thought that the training was first class and would recommend the Ringway scheme to anyone seeking a career in this business.

Ringway bridge the gap.....

A bridge needed to be replaced within a day in Shirley in the north east of the County, to maintain access for the local residents.

Sounds like a tall order.....but our bridge team headed by Chris Dovey and Jason rose to the challenge.

These photos show the team in action......

Thursday is election day in Worcestershire......

Worcestershire Polling Stations.

On Thursday local council elections will be taking place throughout Worcestershire. Can we all ensure locally that our works do not cause would be electors getting their votes cast.

Ringway get Upton Church Blessing......

On Sunday Upton upon Severn held a church service in to commemorate three years of construction in the town.

As can be seen from "the order of service" special praise was singled out for the Ringway team "for the courtesy shown to pedestrians by the workmen during the recent pavement and road works."

Ringway Worcestershire win Green Apple Environmental Award.

Today we have been informed that our submission has been successful and that Ringway Worcestershire has won the "Green Apple Built Environment" Award. This is recognition for many of the unique carbon reduction initiatives developed here in Worcestershire such as "Lean the Load" and "Drive Safe/Drive Green", and maintains our award winning tradition.

Surface Dressing starts...Upton finished.

Monday saw the start of this years surface dressing season in Worcestershire. Unlike last

year so far we have been blessed with sunshine.



Sunday saw the completion of the Upton on Severn scheme. The feedback we are getting is that the scheme has been very well received locally.

Lots of compliments.......

Its always great to be able to publicise compliments.What is particularly pleasing is the amount we are getting and how frequently they refer to how polite, helpful and informative our staff are out on site. 

A great credit to Ringway and Worcestershire Highways. 

Winter wont let up.....

Hats off to the entire Worcestershire Highways winter maintenance teams who have been working flat out all through the weekend. There was a huge variation across the County with the Evesham area having very little, to 6 feet high snow drifts in the north east of the County around Tenbury.
The current forecast predicts freezing temperatures into the Easter weekend.

Worcestershire Highways Red Nose Day..

There is still time to take part in the fund raising festivities.

Contact Gemma to guess the number of sweets in the jar or to spot the red nose.

All contributions greatly appreciated.

Here is something you dont see every day.....

Today Jon Fraser is filming a light hearted film based on repairing pot holes. He hopes to have it completed next week. When loaded onto Youtube we will let everyone have the link, lets make it go "viral".

Ringway Worcestershire EFQM result.

We have now received our EFQM report and score following the assessment carried out in December. Last year we gained the highest score ever achieved by a Ringway/Eurovia company in the UK, and I am proud to tell you all that we have again improved, and achieved a remakable score of 600, which establishes Worcestershire as a European excellent business. This has been achieved by teamwork and is a credit to everyone.





As part of our ongoing commitment to carbon reduction we have taken delivery of an electric vehicle. John Howles will be testing it out around the network. We hope it proves to be a positive experience.

Worcestershire Highways on TV

Last night and this morning Worcestershire Highways winter maintenance activities have been featured in the media. BBC broadcast live, early and late evening from Lydiate Ash with an excellent feature on the achievements of the team. As ever Jon Fraser was excellent on camera and there was also a good performance by our driver Dave Hundley speaking "on the job".