02 February 2015

Costain swept the boards at the Highways Agency’s Supplier Recognition Scheme awards, scooping top honours in four of the seven categories, including two awards in the Safety, Health and Wellbeing category.

The awards, which are in their fourth year, recognise the important contribution made by the Agency’s suppliers in managing and improving England’s network of motorways and major A-roads. They also highlight the valuable work its suppliers do to drive down costs and deliver even more efficient and effective customer services.

Suppliers, including joint ventures and small to medium sized enterprises from across all aspects of Highways Agency business, were invited to be recognised through a non-financial award in seven key business areas, which formed the seven categories for the awards.

This year, the Highways Agency received a record 118 entries, with a quarter of the victors coming from small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). It also saw the inclusion of a new Safety, Health and Wellbeing category, with awards going to three suppliers for their work in improving road user and road worker safety.

Costain’s winning categories are as follows:

Building and Sustaining Capability – awarded to suppliers that have developed their employees’ skills and capabilities through delivery of Highways Agency contracts.
Awarded to: Costain for its engagement with skills and employment organisations that led to apprentices and young staff being recruited for the M1 junctions 28-31 Smart Motorway scheme.

Customer Experience - awarded to suppliers that have demonstrated industry leading commitment to customer service.

Awarded to: Costain for its proactive engagement with customers, stakeholders and communities during the M1 junctions 28 -31 Smart Motorway scheme; and Carillion Civil Engineering for their work to involve the local community during the A23 Handcross to Warninglid scheme including visits to schools and providing public liaison 24 hours a day.

Safety, Health and Wellbeing – awarded to suppliers that show industry leading commitment to improving organisational, workforce and road user health and safety.

Awarded to: A-One+ Integrated Highway Services, a joint venture between Costain, Colas and Halcrow, for its Occupational Health and Wellbeing aspect, for embedding occupational health and wellbeing as a core value and proactively promoting benefits with its road workers; Costain (Road Users aspect) for a series of site measures and safety initiatives on the M1 junctions 28-35a scheme, including targeting driver behaviour through the use of personal messages from the children of road workers; Skanska Construction UK (Road Workers aspect) for its efforts to improve road worker safety collaboratively including the construction of a simulated motorway for emergency services and workers as part of incident management exercises.

Supply Chain Management – awarded to suppliers that demonstrate the Highways Agency’s strategic agenda, values and principles through supply chains.

Awarded to: The Collaborative Procurement Working Group (CPWG) – Carillion, BAM/Morgan Sindall, Costain, Balfour Beatty, Asset International, Polypipe and Saint Gobain for its joint work to overcome a shortage of temporary barrier and avoid delays by implementing effective strategies through the supply chain.

Costain was also highly commended in the “Delivering Sustainable Value and Solutions” category for its work on the M42 Asset Support Framework (ASF), an award which is given to suppliers that have integrated environmental, social, economic and management aspects of sustainable development into the delivery of Highways Agency contracts.

Graham Dalton, Chief Executive of the Highways Agency, said: “This year our recognition scheme received more than double the number of entries compared to last year – that is simply fantastic. It’s also a strong indication of the steps our suppliers have made in bringing innovation into the workplace. I find it truly heartening that at a time when the safety of our road workers is of paramount importance, there were three companies besides the winner worthy of a high commendation in that category.”

Tony Scutt, Costain’s Highways Agency Programme Director, added: “We are delighted to be recognised in the Highways Agency Supplier Awards which acknowledges the hard work of everyone across the supply chain in improving performance and sharing best practice.”