Inspiring Women in our Industry

Published 11 July 2017 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesDisadvantaged and minority groups support Plan to positively promote construction
To celebrate International Women in Engineering Day, we developed a series of short bios of women in our business. Drawing from a broad cross section of disciplines and experience from within the project, our leadership team worked with women to capture and celebrate their own journey in engineering and construction. As well as capturing their stories, we encouraged our women...

Inventions Week: Water Travel

Published 16 June 2017 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesCommunity engagement Schools and nurseries
During Inventions Week in March, we teamed up our STEM Ambassadors with a local school to explore the theme of ‘Water Travel’ with Year 5 and 6 students. The students were challenged to plan, design and construct a pair of shoes which had the capacity to walk on water. Prior to our visit, the students designed their shoes and were...

Minimising Customer Disruption Through Pavement Design

Published 8 June 2017 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesReasonable working hours
We recently had to undertake overnight resurfacing work on the westbound slip roads of the A64 trunk road and the A1237 York outer ring road. This key junction has a heavy commuter and leisure traffic flow, so works had to be planned overnight under full slip road closures to minimise disruption. The overnight traffic management included diversions for the road...

LED Lighting installed on a motorway

Published 8 June 2017 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesAdequate lighting Conserve of energy Positioning of equipment, lighting and CCTV
We completed £1.1m of lighting improvement work on the M62 over a 19km length between J22 Saddleworth Moor and Kirklees Viaduct, west of Junction 25. We replaced over 1,000 high pressure sodium lanterns with new LED lighting units; this solution was devised by the contractor to suit the client specification. These require no routine maintenance, eliminating the need for cyclic...

Enhanced Head Protection for Workforce

Published 2 June 2017 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesFalling objects PPE
A-one+ keep the safety of our workers at the heart of everything we do. That’s why we took the opportunity to learn from some accidents to challenge the industry norm head protection. Within the highways community head protection is often worn as a mandatory part of PPE. Current helmets conform with BS EN397:2012 and offer protection from impacts and penetration...

Apprentices Learning about Construction

Published 4 April 2017 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesCareer planning and progression for employed staff Learning plans and training available
A visit to a major construction site on the A160 was arranged for our Civil Engineer Apprentices and developing Technicians and Engineers. This was a good opportunity to see the development of major works within the local area. This visit was arranged as part of the ongoing development of staff within the organisation. It was a good opportunity to gain...

Cleaning up a Community Area 1 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 5

Published 31 January 2017 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesCommunity engagement
A local memorial garden had become overgrown encouraging anti-social behaviour, and preventing people using the public space as an area of reflection. Overgrown vegetation was hiding most of the paths and paved areas, benches had become overgrown preventing use, and there was significant volumes of litter and debris. Two of our maintenance operatives spent time clearing the area of empty...

Enhanced STEM event at a primary school

Published 19 December 2016 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesSchools and nurseries
At A-one+ we believe that by increasing the understanding of what we do on the motorways and trunk roads, we promote a common goal of safer roads for our roadworkers, for our communities, including students, staff, parents/carers, and for road users. In partnership with Highways England we spent a day with 462 children at Seven Hills Primary School in Morley...

Recognising Apprentices at Awards Events

Published 16 November 2016 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesWorkforce recognition programmes
As part of our Apprentice support programme we encouraged our second year Apprentices to reflect on their achievements in completing their first full year of their Apprenticeships. This included supporting one of our Apprentices to prepare a submission for a local industry award scheme, capturing what he had learned in his first year and how he had contributed to business...

Customer Hub

Published 25 October 2016 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesCommunity consultation Community engagement
We have developed a bespoke Customer Hub group which meets regularly to both look back at previous trends and to look forward to review new and engaging ways to communicate with customers. The Hub has signed up to a Terms of Reference document and customer strategy document which is directly aligned with Highways England’s customer strategy. The members of our...

Interview Practice Sessions at a Local College

Published 27 September 2016 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesColleges and universities Promoting construction as a career choice
Some of our STEM Ambassadors worked with a local college to undertake a series of practice interview sessions aimed at existing 16+ students of varying abilities and skills. The aim was to provide students with an opportunity to have their existing interview skills assessed, giving them an indication of their strongest and weakest areas and provide them with advice as...

IiD Handbook 1 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 5

Published 13 September 2016 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesEDI/FIR training Engagement and commitment from the workforce
We recognise that by having a diverse and inclusive workforce, we can make our place of work a great place to be. By raising awareness of being inclusive we can promote a culture which will further harness the unique skills, characteristics and experience which we have to offer. To do this we have established an Investors in Diversity steering group...

Free Flu Jabs Offered to Operatives

Published 12 September 2016 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesAccess to health practitioners and counselling services
The occupational health and wellbeing provision within A-one+ goes above and beyond any legislative requirements. A-one+ is a 24/7 business running day and night carrying out a multitude of highway maintenance operations such as winter services, gritting etc, therefore a lot of our personnel (mainly operatives) don’t get the opportunity to attend their own GP should they need to during...

Post Work Social Media Engagement

Published 30 August 2016 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesCommunity engagement Regular updates of progress Social media
We recently completed some essential maintenance work on a 4½km stretch of the M62 between Junctions 37 and 38 near Balkholme in East Riding of Yorkshire. As part of our efforts to better communicate what we have done with road users – our community – which is a difficult group to connect with, we released a series of post work...

Drug and Alcohol Awareness

Published 30 August 2016 | No comments
Written by Andrew Sharp
CategoriesRandom substance testing Substance dependence cessation
We are committed to maintaining a productive and most importantly, safe workplace. In managing large geographical areas of the strategic road network involving busy transportation pathways and working next to high speed traffic, we must ensure that the safety of the workforce and the public is always of utmost concern, and that our workforce all round awareness is always as...

The Best Practice Hub is provided by the Considerate Constructors Scheme