We need greater public awareness of Lincoln’s roadworks

By Richard Davies richarddavies

The County Council’s highways team has had a busy summer. You’ve no doubt driven past the various road works that we’ve been doing in the last few months, but there’s also been a lot of behind the scenes work to plan the major projects that we’re about to start construction on.

The next few years will see the biggest investment in Lincoln since the university, with around £250 million being spent on the city. The challenge of improving Lincoln’s infrastructure can’t be solved overnight, but these investments are a huge step in the right direction.

As a council, we’re well capable of delivering these schemes on-target and on-budget, but what we really need is greater awareness among the public. We all have a stake in this. We all have something to gain, and, if things go wrong, something to lose.

We work closely with The Lincolnite to give everyone as much information as possible, but sometimes that’s not as easy as it sounds. Any number of unforeseen issues – like a simple change in the weather – can lead to work being delayed, or having to be pulled forward etc.

We obviously try to make it as easy as possible for you to find out what’s going on. You can always find information on the council website, or on our new highways Twitter feed @LincsCC_roads. But we’re also doing some more innovative stuff, such as a helping to develop a website that collates information on every piece of roadwork that’s going on in the county (and beyond).

We have a lot of faith in Roadworks.org but have a look and see what you think. The Lincolnite has its own version of this here.

It’ll help you find out everything that’s going on in your area. Not just the council’s work (only 1 in 3 road works are down to us), but what the utility companies, like National Grid and Anglian Water, are doing too.

You can set-up email alerts that’ll tell you if there’s anything happening on your route to work or on the school run, and there are loads of other little handy features that’ll keep you more informed.

I can’t promise it’ll mean you never encounter traffic jams again, but this interactive system will definitely give you a much better chance to avoid them.

Councillor Richard Davies is the executive councillor for Highways and Transportation at Lincolnshire County Council. He is also responsible for Access LN6, a £6.5 million programme to improve sustainable transport options in the LN6 area of Lincoln and Hykeham.