Yorkshire and Humberside has become the latest Region to sign up to the ELGIN roadworks new platform.

The regional Traffic Managers’ Group has adopted the Lite version which includes the option to trial the full Premium system while it evaluates the benefits, leaving open the option to either continue with the Lite version or the subscription service.

Commenting on the decision, Ian Ashmore, Chair of the Regional Group and Transportation and Traffic Manager for Rotherham said:

“We were impressed with the new ELGIN platform, the fact that it is up and running and that there is now a free entry option to enable all Authorities to participate in a national platform. ELGIN’s commitment to a robust governance structure which will protect the interests of the public sector was also a factor in our decision”

There is no “inertia” pressure for Authorities to sign up to ELGIN’s Premium service, a free trial of which comes with the Lite version (see here for details). But already some Authorities are seeing the advantages – Simon Law, Wakefield’s Group Engineer, commented:

 ”I can confirm that we in Wakefield have already identified various benefits of the Premium service and will therefore be happy to move to a full user at the end of the trial period. Our web IT colleague had no problems embedding the map on our web platform and had it done by the time I got back to the office this afternoon! Just proves it is as easy as you say!”

For more information, please contact: pr@elgin.org.uk

Today the Olympic Torch Route will be published on roadworks.org enabling Traffic Managers and utility companies to easily coordinate roadworks activities to avoid disrupting the Torch.

Working with the London 2012 Organising Committee, ELGIN is making the Torch Route information available in conjunction with its comprehensive map of planned roadworks, providing a national roadworks coordination tool for roadworks planners. Access is restricted to local authority and utility staff.

For a username and password please apply to info@elgin.org.uk providing your name, job title, organisation, email and phone number.

The Olympic Torch facility is just one example of cross-boundary  planning benefit available to your Local Authority.  If your Local Authority is not a subscriber, then there is a free entry point to enable stakeholders to take advantage of this national facility. Contact us for details.

This week’s budget statement highlighted the growth of ELGIN’s Roadworks Portal (formerly www.elgin.gov.uk) and its coverage now of over 65% of England and Wales.

The Budget statement reads:

The Roadworks website has opened up access to highways and traffic data on Open Government Licence terms. The provision of this data now covers around 65 per cent of local authorities across England. The Government is working with the remaining local authorities to complete coverage and include other road performance data.

Over 90 Local Authorities are now co-operating with ELGIN to share real-time local roadworks information, and bringing the benefits of Open Data through to traffic information services and innovative applications developers.

Roadworks.org (formerly www.elgin.gov.uk) is re-launching in April on a new Google maps platform optimised for mobile devices and with a free entry point for the remaining non participating Local Authorities.

Commenting on the Budget statement, ELGIN’ s Shane O’Neill and National Users Group Chairman, Keith Davenport (Warwickshire Traffic Manager) commented:

The fact that the Government has drawn attention to Roadworks.org in this week’s Budget statement is a testament to those Local Authorities who have pioneered the ELGIN roadworks mapping  portal.

They been practicing for years what policymakers now call “cloud computing” and Open Data. And they are now providing for a free entry route for non participating Authorities to join them in this national effort.

Northumberland County Council  became the 85th local authority whose local roadworks data, updated every 30 minutes from the Streetworks Register, can be viewed on ELGIN’s roadworks.org portal.

This has now brought ELGIN’s coverage (see here) to over 60% of England and Wales.

Later in March, when ELGIN’s new platform is launched, Northumberland along with all other participating local authorities will be able to take advantage of a Google maps user interface which they can embed within their own website and a smartphone app.

Northumbria were even more impressed by the speed of ELGIN’s implementation – Ruth Bendell, Northumbria’s Networks and Infrastructure Manager said after the installation:

“I was astounded that ELGIN were able to have us up and running within a few hours – within the same day in fact, with minimal effort from us”

ELGIN Chairman Shane O’Neill commented:

“Lengthy procurement cycles and even lengthier implementation periods ought to become a thing of the past – web based “cloud” systems such as ELGIN can be installed and up and running within  hours, as Northumberland has just discovered.”

ELGIN’s coverage is extending rapidly with the addition in the past three months of Surrey, Isle of Wight, Gwynedd, Wakefield and Northumberland, with more to come over next few weeks.

For more information pleased contact pr@elgin.org.uk

Dark Group a technology services provider with offices in Hampshire and N. Ireland are the latest innovative company to take advantage of ELGIN’s API service for local roadworks.

Dark are developing several community based sites, such as Liphook in Hampshire where they integrate public sector information from several sources to provide community interest information to citizens and local businesses.

Managing Director Mark Baker commented:

” getting all our local roadworks information via ELGIN’s intelligent API, as well as rail information and other data which impacts upon local citizens and businesses enables us to build new services and grow as a company. We have 25,000 unique visitors per month to the first of our community sites, and we are intending to launch several more in the next several months”

ELGIN’s API services are available to help UK industry use public sector information to innovate and grow – see here for more details

By making the data available in intelligent format to innovative applications developers, sponsoring local authorities are also helping to drive the nation’s growth strategy by encouraging enterprise.

For more information, please contact: pr@elgin.org.uk

A new service to give councillors and local parish communities advance warning of 1.7 million local road works is launched today (Feb 16).

Roadworks Alerts is free to users and provides details of local road works direct to mobile phones or as automated feeds to websites.

It is a new service from the ELGIN roadworks.org website – the most comprehensive roadworks portal in the UK. It publishes up-to-the-minute information about local roadworks on a live map, with the aim of helping to cut traffic jams and co-ordinate works planning among telephone, water and energy Utilities – potentially saving the UK billions of pounds a year.

Councillor Robert Barr OBE, Warrington borough council, commenting on the new service which enables Alerts to be set up by ward and parish, as well as address and postcode, said:

“We need to help our motorists avoid delays due to roadworks. Roadworks Alerts can help avoid the waste of time that congestion causes and will help councillors keep track of the effect of maintenance and repairs on the roads.”

Cambridgeshire county councillor, Shona Johnstone added:

“Councillors are often the first point of contact for the public. Having up-to-the-minute information about local roadworks by Ward will be a huge benefit in ensuring that their constituents are kept informed.”

Enterprising local councils such as Warwickshire are already pushing out local roadworks information to parish level. County Communications Manager Jane Inman said:

“We have 220 parishes – by our syndicating roadworks data through Roadworks Alerts, local citizens get information about roadworks direct from our Streetworks Register, thus encouraging both ourselves and Utilities and their contractors to keep the information up to date.”

ELGIN Chairman Shane O’Neill commented:

“This is an excellent example of local government making critical transport information available.”

“Over 55% of England and Wales is already covered by this service. Better access to data will lead to better coordination of works and will drive efficiencies.”

“And, by making the data available in intelligent format to innovative applications developers, sponsoring local authorities are also helping to drive the nation’s growth strategy by encouraging enterprise.”

For more information, please contact: pr@elgin.org.uk

Notes to editors:

roadworks.org is the largest roadworks database in the UK, developed and supported by ELGIN. It harvests data effectively in real-time from participating local authorities and LondonWorks as well as main trunk route information from the Highways Agency.

Formerly known as www.elgin.gov.uk, it re-launches in March 2012 with a range of new Open Data features and services.

Local Government Chronicle’s David Brownsey-Joyce in his best practice column notes the contribution of local authorities towards data transparency and democratic accountability in the area of local roadworks…

“Keeping the roads moving and services running can be hard enough but when there are continuous roadworks finding ways around them can seem impossible….read on…

Isle of Wight are the latest local authority to join the ELGIN network. And Isle of Wight Radio immediately realised the value and potential of the service by taking an intelligent data feed via ELGIN  of IOW roadworks information.

Commenting on the reasons why they thought ELGIN to be important, Traffic Manager Ian Thornton said:

“We at present only publish a list of roadworks (to be compliant with Traffic Management Act obligation). But users really need to see things on a map – they really get it then. ELGIN is an effective means of our accomplishing our objectives – and much more cost efficient than our trying to develop a map based roadworks system ourselves.”

And Paul Topping, Programme Director of Isle of Wight Radio commented:

“We are delighted to get this real time feed direct from the Streetworks Register via ELGIN. Getting timely and reliable public sector information like this, in intelligent format, helps us swiftly to bring innovative and useful services to citizens.”

ELGIN is the local roadworks portal (www.elgin.gov.uk) which is being re launched in March 2012, with a range of new services and entry points for Local Authorities. For more information, please contact: marketing@elgin.org.uk.

Surrey County Council is the latest Authority to join ELGIN, spurred on by the demands the Olympic Games are making on the County’s Transport & Planning department. Commenting on the move, Williams Bryans of Surrey said:

“The reason we subscribed to ELGIN was that we have part of the Olympic Route Network and a number of Olympic road race events and our Streetworks team wanted something that was a really simple visualisation tool. They have no such mapping tool and front end interface to view roadworks. Also we have a number of strategic diversion routes in case of incidents on the motorway and trunk road network so we need to be able to see roadwork details in relation to these routes, and our elected Members (Councillors) really liked it during an earlier trial of ELGIN.”

ELGIN, the local roadworks portal, re-launches in March 2012 with a new Google maps user interface, a free entry level for new subscribers, and a host of new products and features. It will include the Olympic stopover routes as well as a brand new Councillor Ward Alert feature.

For more details please contact marketing@elgin.org.uk