Arcadis, supported by technical partners IBI Group, has been appointed by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) to deliver legacy and benefits realisation services for the Network Resilience Live Lab project, one of eight projects funded by the Department for Transport under the £22.9m ADEPT SMART Places Live Labs Programme.
The Network Resilience Live Lab project is a partnership between TfWM, Birmingham City Council and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, established to drive innovation and find new ways to manage congestion and keep the West Midlands moving, now and in the future.
As the Network Resilience Live Lab project (NRLL) moves into its final phase, tangible benefits and outcomes need to be identified and assessed to help create the operational legacy.
Arcadis and IBI Group will contribute to the development of the benefits and business cases to support future investment, extracting and disseminating technical and operational learning, developing a methodology to measure travel behaviour change and supporting skills development to create the legacy outcomes.
This is an essential outcome from the project as it moves from innovation pilot to standardised operations. The findings from the commission will inform TfWM’s forward plans and contribute to the ADEPT SMART Places Programme Commissioning Board’s ability to identify trends across all projects in the programme, as well as providing evidence of return on investment for the Department for Transport.
Tim Strong, Senior Technical Director at Arcadis, said: “Working with our partners IBI Group, we are excited to have the opportunity to support the Network Resilience Live Lab project team to help make sense of what has been achieved, to share what has been learned and to support the transition from innovation project to ‘business as usual’. In this way, we will contribute to reducing congestion for the people of the West Midlands and improving their quality of life.”
Colin Wilson, Director, UK Services Lead, Intelligence at IBI Group comments: “IBI Group is very pleased to be working with Arcadis to help realise the legacy and benefits from TfWM’s Network Resilience Live Lab project. As well as being very timely with the Live Lab moving into its final phase, the outcomes will also dovetail with a companion piece of work IBI is carrying out to develop a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for TfWM’s Regional Transport Coordination Centre.”
Deborah Fox, Head of Demand Management at TfWM and NRLL sponsor, said: “We are delighted to be working with Arcadis on this stage of our pilot project. West Midlands residents will benefit from the best of new technologies explored becoming operational in the Regional Transport Coordination Centre. The commission will enable documentation of the body of work built up in the two-year project. By sharing it with the wider sector, it will inform better partnerships and avoidance of cost to tax-payers.”
Hannah Bartram, Chief Operating Officer at ADEPT said: “One of the most important aspects of the Live Labs programme is its legacy. Sharing the learning, business cases and best practice from each Live Lab will enable local authorities to adopt new technologies as business as usual and transform the wider sector.”
ADEPT represents local authority, county, unitary and metropolitan Directors. The ADEPT SMART Places Live Labs programme is a two-year £22.9 million project funded by the Department for Transport and supported by project partners SNC-Lavalin’s Atkins business, EY, Kier, O2, Ringway and WSP. Nine local authorities are working on projects to introduce digital innovation across SMART mobility, transport, highways, maintenance, data, energy and communications. Live Labs is part of ADEPT’s SMART Places programme to support the use of digital technology in place-based services.
Photo credit: Arcadis
