Challenge
The street works team plays a crucial role in coordinating infrastructure projects, including new water connections, maintenance, repairs, and the renewal of ageing pipework. They are involved with ensuring swift responses to emergencies like burst mains and managing major schemes such as mains rehabilitation, all while minimising disruption to the public.
However, the street works team faces increasing regulatory pressures, making its operations more complex. New regulations to be introduced by the Department for Transport (DfT), such as increased Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) and extended overrun charges—including charges now applying on weekends and bank holidays—have added extra challenges. Additionally, local authorities are required to allocate a portion of surplus lane rental funds to road maintenance, placing added emphasis on utilities to maintain transparency and efficiency in their street works operations to align with these local authority requirements.
South Staffordshire Water recognised the importance of these changing regulatory demands, requiring a system that would enhance visibility, and support compliance across both regions—South Staffordshire and Cambridge.
Solution: Why Aurora Was the Right Fit
South Staffordshire Water has improved its street works management in part by adopting Aurora, Symology’s cutting-edge solution. Designed to meet the challenges of the evolving regulatory landscape, Aurora was selected for its functionality, intuitive interface, and ability to consolidate all necessary tools into one platform, eliminating the need for multiple systems and simplifying workflows.
“Symology has created a system that provides everything you need, all in one place. No more juggling multiple windows or screens—everything is right there in front of you. The dashboards and widgets give us a clear, real-time overview of all ongoing works, traffic management, and key activities. It makes planning, delivery, and control much easier and more efficient.”
Emma Roberts, Street Works and Compliance Manager, South Staffordshire WaterAurora’s intuitive design ensures that critical data is accessible at a glance, enabling the team to make informed decisions quickly. The dashboards provide a concise, visual representation of street works, helping monitor operations and stay on top of key tasks. Additionally, Aurora’s customisable mapping features have streamlined the management of operations across both the South Staffordshire and Cambridge regions, enabling the team to manage traffic management schemes and street works projects without the need for multiple systems.
Implementation: A Smooth Transition with Symology’s Support
A smooth and efficient implementation process was crucial for South Staffordshire Water, particularly given its use of a third-party works management system. The integration between Aurora and this system was a key consideration, as both needed to communicate seamlessly to ensure operations continued without disruption.
Symology’s experience in integrating Aurora with third-party systems was invaluable. Having already migrated another customer using the same third-party system, Symology had a proven roadmap that ensured a smooth transition. This prior success, coupled with Symology’s expertise in API integration, allowed for efficient implementation.
In addition to Symology’s technical proficiency, the support from the broader customer community played a significant role. As Emma Roberts noted, “Symology has a great relationship with their customers. Other customers reached out and made themselves available to others going through the migration and transformation. It’s great to see this, and very refreshing. It shows the respect the customers have for Symology, and how appreciative they are. This made the implementation much smoother and easier”.
During the testing phase, South Staffordshire Water found additional value in collaborating with Sandwell Council’s Streetworks team, who were undergoing a similar transformation. Both teams agreed to work together during testing, primarily to identify potential risks before Aurora went live. By working together, both teams fine-tuned the system’s functionality, streamlined workflows, and identified potential issues early, resulting in a more robust solution. The joint effort also helped boost customer confidence.
With Symology’s expertise, the support of the customer community, and the added collaboration with Sandwell Council, the integration between Aurora and South Staffordshire Water’s system was executed with minimal disruption. This allowed the Streetworks team to quickly adapt to the new system and continue their operations without delay.
Results
Aurora’s introduction brought clear improvements in visibility for South Staffordshire Water. The ability to view both South Staffordshire and Cambridge regions in a unified map with detailed, real-time updates enabled the Street Works team to improve their oversight. Whether monitoring active works, traffic management, or compliance with regulatory requirements, the system’s intuitive interface made it easy to track progress and identify any issues early.
The visibility offered by Aurora also made it easier for South Staffordshire Water to collaborate with external stakeholders, such as local authorities and contractors. This enhanced communication helped improve project delivery times and ensured that the Street Works team stayed aligned with local regulations.
Looking Ahead
Looking toward the future, South Staffordshire Water plans to further expand the use of Aurora, particularly by utilising the Aurora mobile app. The mobile app would allow teams to conduct self-inspections of streetworks sites, identifying potential defects or issues before they are flagged by local authorities—ultimately helping to reduce the risk of FPNs and improve overall compliance.
The continued use and enhancement of Aurora’s capabilities align with South Staffordshire Water’s commitment to operational excellence, improving both their internal processes and their ability to collaborate with local authorities to reduce road disruptions.
Conclusion
The adoption of Aurora has helped South Staffordshire Water to, improve compliance with regulatory requirements and enhance operational efficiency across its South Staffordshire and Cambridge regions. By offering clear visibility, real-time updates, and powerful tools for risk mitigation and compliance, Aurora has supported South Staffordshire Water navigate the evolving regulatory environment.
