National Highways Depots

CWM Project

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In October 2023, Morgan Sindall Construction handed over four new roadside depots as part of National Highways’ plans to improve its locations throughout England. Adopting a ‘hub and spoke’ model for the first time, the project would look to build or upgrade satellite offices at their roadside locations to provide staff with the same modern working environments as its city centre ‘hub’ offices. Procured through SCAPE National Construction framework, which encouraged early contractor engagement and high levels of collaboration, all four depots were handed over on time, within budget, and with an average client satisfaction score of 9.1/10.

The development of Bescot, Doxey, Strensham and Warndon depots within Area 9 sought to improve the West Midlands operational model by bringing together National Highways’ staff with traffic officers, contractors and its maintenance partner, Colas, in modern working environments.

Conducting the works in parallel helped all four projects to complete in just 10 months whilst also minimising disruptions to the depots and the wider road network. It also guaranteed higher levels of quality and consistency. Following the handover of the first depot, Warndon, the standard for the remaining depots to achieve was set – or as was often the case, surpass. Not only were successes replicated and cost savings passed on, but invaluable ‘lessons learned’ were incorporated into the next project, along with key project members to oversee delivery to the same standard.