Easing congestion in the capital
In April 2009, we became the first UK utility to start using road plates, which enable motorists to drive straight over open roadwork excavations dug as part of our Victorian mains replacement programme.
We have now covered over 4,000 metres of trenches in central London with our high-strength plastic plates, which are light enough to be laid over holes by workmen during rush hour, then removed so work can resume when the traffic dies down. That's a lot of traffic jams averted and hopefully, a lot of Londoners' lives made that little bit easier.Unfortunately, our work does sometimes disrupt traffic, which is why we've made plates mandatory at every mains replacement site in central London.
The plates are used at our Victorian mains replacement sites on roads under the jurisdiction of Transport for London, but we're also in talks with highways departments at a number of London boroughs about introducing plating in their areas at a later date.
