Costain, the smart infrastructure solutions company, has won a £2m consultancy programme management contract to deliver Bradford Council’s Smart Street Lighting project, which will involve the replacement of 59,000 lights and 17,000 lampposts across the city over a period of four years.
The new, energy-efficient, LED lights will be controlled by a CMS (Central Management System) which will allow remote control of illumination levels (switch on/off times only) which will deliver significant environmental and safety benefits. The CMS also provides the backbone for the inclusion of additional Internet of things (IoT) solutions. The project will reduce the Council’s street lighting power consumption by 65% and its carbon emissions by over 6000 tonnes per year, helping the Council to meet its climate change strategy targets and saving taxpayers an estimated £189m over 50 years.
The ability to support a wide range of emerging IoT technologies will potentially assist the Council in making further cost savings in other areas in the future. In the spirit of true partnership, Costain will work with the Council to ensure additional IoT capabilities can be easily enabled to measure things like road temperatures, air pollution, road gully condition or river levels to even more effectively target maintenance and capital programmes.
This latest consultancy contract win builds on Costain’s three year relationship with Bradford, which has culminated in current status as strategic delivery partner and the development of a high level plan to give an overall picture of £500m worth of capital delivery programmes within the city. The planensures effective integration and governance of the programmes associated with the Transforming Cities Fund, which seeks to improve productivity and prosperity through sustainable transport development, as well as other road, rail and multi-modal programmes. Costain brings significant experience in working with the Department for Transport and Highways England, a broader understanding of the UK infrastructure landscape and decades of delivery heritage, into the partnership.
Sue Kershaw, Transportation managing director, Costain, said: “In these unprecedented times, where Covid-19 has brought much of the economy to a standstill, local authorities are under huge pressure to continue delivery of critical programmes of work for their communities. Our relationship with Bradford Council, which focuses on partnership and outcomes, has allowed us to reach back into our organisation to deliver additional capacity, capability, resilience and flexibility in a range of areas to support our client and keep the transport infrastructure services working.”
Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw, Executive Member for Regeneration, Planning and Transport, said: “Bradford’s Smart Street Lighting programme represents a major investment in one of the biggest assets of the Council – our 59,000 street lighting columns. The ability to ensure effective delivery of the contract was paramount in Bradford’s approach to seeking a delivery partner with the skills, knowledge and ability to drive both the financial savings and the associated positive contribution to our CO2 emissions which are key outputs over the next five years. The appointment of Costain to the strategic delivery partner role has given Bradford the confidence that we have the right people helping us achieve these outcomes based on our experience of their involvement in our programmes of transport investment in the district.“
This work supporting Bradford Council also demonstrates Costain’s commitment to helping clients accelerate the transition to a net zero carbon economy, made as part of its Climate Change Action plan launched in February 2020, and is another step in fulfilling its ambition to lead UK infrastructure into a zero carbon future by 2035 at the latest, supporting the UK Government in meeting their 2050 target.
