Surrey County Council has awarded Alchera funding from its Lane Rental Scheme to develop an AI-powered impact assessment tool for streetworks permit decisions. The project is a collaborative research and development effort, with Alchera leading the technical build and working closely alongside Surrey's streetworks and network management teams, whose operational expertise and data will help shape a solution designed to be of value to the wider industry.
Funded through the Surrey Lane Rental Scheme, the tool will draw on historical roadworks and traffic data to assess the potential impact of new permit applications on congestion and traffic flow, automating a process that currently relies predominantly on manual review. The aim is to demonstrate that highway authorities can make faster, evidence-based permit decisions without sacrificing precision, and to produce a capability that could ultimately benefit network management teams across the country, including Surrey's own.
The Surrey Lane Rental Scheme charges utility companies and contractors for occupying road space during high-traffic periods and reinvests that revenue into network management capability.
Transport infrastructure data analytics company Alchera will lead the development of the analytical AI logic and user interface in close collaboration with Surrey County Council's Highways, Transport & Network Management teams. The solution will be underpinned by Alchera’s existing platform architecture and piloted on Surrey's network from September, following an initial build and testing phase.
Councillor Matt Furniss, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Economic Growth, Surrey County Council said,
"Surrey's roads are among the busiest in the country outside London, and roadworks remain one of the biggest sources of frustration for people travelling on our network. Optimising permit decisions is therefore critical to reducing disruption and keeping people moving. This project gives us the opportunity to make faster, more informed decisions with greater confidence, supported by the data and evidence that should underpin them. We're delighted to be working with Alchera to develop a solution that has the potential to set a new standard for how highway authorities manage and coordinate activity on their networks."
Anna Jordan, Chief Executive Officer, Alchera Technologies added,
"We believe that transport authorities should not have to choose between speed and rigour when assessing the impact of works on their network. By automating the evaluation of permit impacts using real historical data, we can give network management teams the confidence to make faster, better-informed decisions. This project only works because of the depth of expertise and commitment Surrey County Council is bringing to it. Their teams understand the problem from the inside and that knowledge is what will make this tool genuinely useful, for Surrey and for the wider industry.”
