Sectors: highways and infrastructure
Removing the documentation load from highways and infrastructure contractors, built around the shift
Traffic management plans, streetworks notices, night shift reports and framework KPIs do not wait for a quiet week. Our proprietary system and process prepares, structures and checks that documentation, with AI applied inside your shift and scheme workflows, so your supervisors and managers review and approve rather than type.
The documentation reality
On highways work, the paperwork runs to the rhythm of the network
Works are planned around road space, delivered in short possessions and night shifts, and reported to clients who manage live networks. The records are frequent, time-critical and scrutinised.
Traffic management
Temporary traffic management designed and installed in line with Chapter 8 of the Traffic Signs Manual, or the Safety at Street Works and Road Works code of practice on lower-speed roads.
- TM plans and layout drawings
- Set-up, check and removal records
- Evidence for NHSS scheme audits
Streetworks
Works in the highway under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, coordinated with the highway authority.
- NRSWA notices and permit applications
- Permit conditions and variations
- Reinstatement and inspection records
Shift and night works
Every shift needs a briefing beforehand and a record afterwards, often completed at the end of a long night.
- Shift briefings and RAMS sign-on
- Shift and night works reports
- Incident and near miss records
Framework and client reporting
National Highways, local authority and other network clients all expect regular, structured reporting.
- KPI returns and performance reviews
- Monthly progress reports
- Lessons learned records
Quality, asset data and handover
The information the client needs to own and maintain the asset after you have left the network.
- Inspection and test records
- Asset data in the client's required format
- As-builts and handover information
RAMS for recurring and reactive works
Routine maintenance, planned schemes and reactive call-outs, each needing a method that fits the location on the night.
- Generic RAMS kept current
- Site-specific additions for each location
- Rapid RAMS for reactive and emergency works
Why it keeps getting heavier
Network clients expect more evidence, more often
Highways clients are managing live, safety-critical networks in public view. That shapes what they ask of contractors, and the ask has grown.
Much of it is reasonable. Collectively it means supervisors, engineers and managers spend a large share of their time producing records and returns rather than planning and delivering the works.
- Performance regimesFrameworks measure delivery, safety, quality and customer impact, and the returns feed commercial decisions.
- Permit schemesHighway authorities operating permit schemes set conditions that have to be planned for, complied with and evidenced.
- Scheme certificationNHSS certification is audited, so traffic management competence and procedures need a clear paper trail.
- Asset information requirementsClients increasingly specify how asset data must be structured and delivered at handover.
- Wider framework commitmentsSome frameworks also ask for social value and carbon reporting on top of delivery reporting.
Social value and carbon: requirements vary widely between clients and frameworks. Where yours asks for them, AI within our system can help gather and summarise the evidence you already collect. It does not set targets or verify figures; that stays with your team and the client.
Where AI sits in the system
Where our system, and AI within it, fits across the life of a shift and a scheme
The easiest way to see how our system works for a highways contractor is to follow the work. At every step, AI prepares and a competent person decides.
Planning the works
AI checks TM plans, RAMS and permit conditions against each other and flags mismatches, such as a working window that does not match the permit or a layout that is missing from the pack. It drafts NRSWA notice and permit application content from the works details. Your TM designer, planner and streetworks coordinator check, approve and submit.
Briefing the shift
AI assembles a briefing pack for the night: the RAMS, the TM layout, permit conditions, known hazards and lessons learned from similar works. The supervisor reviews it and delivers the briefing.
Recording the shift
Supervisors capture progress, delays, incidents and photos by voice note or short form. AI turns them into a structured shift report, and flags anything that looks like it needs an incident record or a client notification. The supervisor confirms the report is accurate before it is submitted.
Reporting to the client
At month end, AI pulls shift reports, quality records and programme updates into a draft framework report and KPI return. The project manager checks every figure and narrative before issue.
Learning and handing over
AI groups recurring issues from shift reports into lessons learned, and checks asset data and handover information for gaps against the client's requirements. Your engineers correct, complete and sign off the handover.
Our team's background
Our team has delivered on the network
Highways is where much of our team's delivery experience sits: national highways and smart motorway schemes, and urban highways maintenance and improvement work.
Selected schemes the team has delivered on include the TfL London Highways Alliance Contract and M5 and M27 motorway schemes, working with contractors including Ringway Jacobs, Morgan Sindall and VolkerFitzpatrick, up to project-director level.
We know what it means to write a shift report after a night on the carriageway, and what a client does with it the next morning. That is the workload our system is built to remove.
Keeping people in control
What AI will not do on a highways scheme
On a live network, the consequences of a wrong decision are immediate. We build the limits into our process and are explicit about them.
- Design or approve traffic managementTM designs and plans are produced and approved by competent, qualified people. AI can check a pack is complete, not that a layout is safe.
- Replace NHSS or NRSWA competenceQualified operatives and supervisors install, maintain and remove TM and supervise streetworks. AI is an administrative aid to them.
- Submit notices or permits uncheckedEvery notice and application is reviewed by the person responsible before it goes to the highway authority.
- Decide on reactive worksHow to respond to a defect, an incident or an emergency is a judgement for your people on the ground and your client.
- Sign off recordsShift reports, inspections and handover information are confirmed by the person who is accountable for them.
How we work with highways contractors
Choosing the right service
Highways contractors range from specialist TM and surfacing firms to multi-discipline framework contractors. The right starting point depends on where the documentation bottleneck sits.
AI Training
Best when supervisors, engineers and coordinators all handle documentation in their own way. Practical sessions on shift reports, notices, RAMS and correspondence bring consistency and safe habits.
AI Implementation
Usually the strongest fit for framework contractors: shift reporting, KPI returns and permit and TM cross-checks are repeated constantly and benefit most from our system running across every scheme.
Managed AI Services
Suits firms that want monthly reporting, lessons learned and handover information produced for them, ready for their managers to review and issue.
Where to start
Find out where your hours go first
Highways contractor compliance work is spread across depots, schemes and shifts, which makes it hard to see the true cost.
The AI Opportunity Audit maps how your teams plan, record and report works, identifies duplication between TM, permit, RAMS and reporting processes, and sets out a roadmap of where our system, with AI applied at the right layer, saves the most. For a quick estimate, use the free Construction Admin Cost Calculator.
Fixed fee
£1,500
Four stages, from mapping your processes to an evidenced roadmap in priority order. The roadmap is yours to keep, whether or not you take it further.
See the AI Opportunity AuditHighways and infrastructure questions
Can AI submit our streetworks notices and permit applications?
AI can draft the content and check it against the works details, TM plan and programme. Submission stays with your streetworks coordinator, who checks it and remains responsible for what goes to the highway authority.
Our supervisors finish night shifts exhausted. How does AI help with reports?
The aim is that a supervisor spends a few minutes confirming a report rather than writing one. Voice notes, photos and short form entries are turned into a structured report in your client's format. The supervisor still reads and confirms it, because they are accountable for the record.
We report to several clients with different KPI templates. Can one system handle that?
Yes. The underlying records from shifts, inspections and programmes are largely the same. We set up our system to produce each client's return from those records, and your managers check the figures before anything is issued.
Does this help with NHSS audits?
AI can help keep TM records, competence records and procedures organised and complete, so evidence is easier to find when an auditor asks. It does not make you compliant on its own; compliance comes from your people following the scheme requirements on site.
Next step
Spend the shift on the works, not the write-up.
A short call about your traffic management, streetworks and reporting load, and where our system would help first.
Or try the free Construction Admin Cost Calculator.