Costain, the smart infrastructure solutions company, has appointed Andy Clarke as integrated transport director.
The creation of this new role reflects the importance placed by the business on working collaboratively with a range of partners to transform the customer experience of transport – helping to catalyse the green transport revolution.
Andy said: “At Costain, we see integrated multi-modal transport solutions as critical to our efforts to enable healthier, happier and better-connected communities. By leveraging new technologies and even more collaborative ways of working, we can enable seamless, cleaner and more active journeys for customers. This is essential if we are to provide a compelling journey experience which encourages customers to opt for blended journeys, which help to reduce our carbon footprint.”
Andy will continue to lead Costain’s aviation offering, recognising the importance of high-quality connections from our transport network to our national and regional airports as well as supporting the industry to decarbonise.
Sue Kershaw, managing director of transportation at Costain, stated: “We’ve been delivering complex programmes across the UK for over 155 years. Combined with our in-house consultancy capability and digital know-how, we are well-placed to work with local authorities, operators, customer groups and industry partners to enhance and create transport systems which place the customer at their heart.”
Costain is currently delivering several integrated transport projects, one of which is the redevelopment of Gatwick airport station alongside Network Rail, Gatwick Airport and their partners. Costain previously led the scheme through the planning and design phases of the project and as delivery partner, is carrying out improvement works to create a safer and more convenient interchange for customers moving between the station platforms and the airport.
The smart infrastructure solutions company has deployed Irides, a video management system, across the Transport for London network, providing dynamic and responsive monitoring services which facilitate safe, cleaner and more active journeys across London. Costain’s digital solution shares information about the current network conditions with TfL’s operations centre, enabling TfL to monitor traffic, pedestrian activity, planned and unplanned events and effectively manage the flow of traffic and people throughout the city. Londoners can also access real-time information which will help them plan their journeys via the TfL JamCams website and through its journey planning tools.
Mark Lumley, Intelligent Transportation Systems Operations Manager at Transport for London, said: “We’re here to help keep London moving. We’re committed to working with innovative digital partners such as Costain to provide a high-quality experience for our customers and help them to make informed decisions about their journeys. The Costain team is willing to support us and our supply chain and is committed to excellence.”
Costain is also exploring the role of digital technologies in enabling safer, cleaner and better integrated journeys on the national and local road network, with projects such as connected digital roads and Midlands Future Mobility. Connected digital roads – a collaborative R&D project with Highways England innovation funding – successfully demonstrated that vehicle-to-everything communication can be used to enable near-real time responses to road conditions. These findings provide a blueprint for maximising the capacity of the existing road network and improving the customer experience by minimising congestion, idling time and carbon emissions. Costain’s contribution to the ongoing Midlands Future Mobility project takes this thinking a step further, exploring vehicle-to-infrastructure communications on the local road network– an important step towards last mile connectivity.
Andy concluded: “This is a very exciting time for the future of transport in the UK. However, we can only realise the true benefits of this approach if we work across the siloes and truly collaborate to ensure that our transport network as a whole works for customers and communities.”