Integrating highway engineering and transformation project management

The reduction in local government funding coupled with national requirements to ensure that maintenance regimes are efficiently and sustainably managed means that there is pressure on the UK highway sector to transform the way it delivers services. This research indicates that there is guidance from government and industry regarding various aspects of change but no comprehensive model for transformation programmes. The aim of this research is therefore to identify the theoretical ingredients for managing change, analyse where these ingredients have been practically applied within this engineering sector and to synthesise a model from the results to provide a project plan for successfully implementing a holistic transformation programme, based on an extensive literature review and on structured interviews and questionnaires within the UK highway sector to test whether these components are effective in practice. The findings from this research have been used to propose a process protocol route map which can be used by both private and public highway sector organisations as a guide to the essential steps required for transforming services. Proposals for future work include further investigation into the role of specialist or smaller suppliers, and further debate on ownership and funding of the highway network.