Balfour Beatty launches control hubs for local authority contracts

Balfour Beatty Living Places has launched two new state-of-the-art Operational Control Hubs on its Lincolnshire County Council and East Sussex County Council contracts.

The Operational Control Hubs use innovative technologies and systems designed in-house by Balfour Beatty Living Places to provide a single source of visibility to monitor all activities in real-time and drive efficiencies across the entire local road networks.  

Each hub serves as a control room and allows operational teams to prioritise work based on the location of vehicles and availability of crew members, capture when tasks are completed and intervene where required to keep any outstanding activities on track.

By integrating live data from multiple systems, the hubs enable teams to react swiftly to any issues on the network. 

The data helps to plot works in a digital, live environment, enabling the effective planning of reactive and emergency works as well as defect reporting.

The opening of the latest Operational Control Hubs builds on the success of the company’s first facilities in Herefordshire and Southampton. 

Since it launched in 2021, the Operational Control Hub in Herefordshire has seen a 16% increase in productivity with 61% of reported defects and issues being actioned and completed ahead of schedule, while in Southampton the company has reduced the time it takes to complete tasks by 40% since August last year.

Steve Helliwell, managing director of Balfour Beatty Living Places said: “Our continued investment in digital technologies, such as the implementation of our Operational Control Hubs, demonstrates how we are actively seeking new, innovative ways of working to drive efficiencies and productivity across our business.

“Data is key in everything we do and by providing our operational teams with real-time information, we are also able to drive sustainable outcomes for our customers and the local community, by prioritising work based on the location of available vehicles and in turn reducing the carbon emissions associated with travelling.”