The GRAHAM partnership with lead designer, Sweco, was honoured with an award for collaboration at the annual Highways England Regional Investment Programme (RIP) conference.

The conference, which took place at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham on 11th July, brought together a range of key decision makers from Highways England, and other stakeholders, to evaluate the future of the UK’s road infrastructure.

For the first time, Delivery Integration Partners (DIP) were invited to attend, with the GRAHAM/Sweco partnership singled out for the RIP Award for Collaboration – the only partnership to receive an accolade at the event.

Highways England praised the “culture and behaviours” embedded within the GRAHAM/Sweco partnership, and stated:

“GRAHAM/Sweco truly embraced Highways England’s culture and behaviours with awareness and understanding of collaboration. The shared common objective to achieve the Start of Works date, and the co-location within the Highways England office has enabled them to demonstrate a one-team approach, promoting openness and trust, whilst laying a foundation for long-term relationships. They have achieved excellent Behavioural Maturity Framework (BMF) results, and have played a key role in deliverables for mobilisation, which were shared regionally and nationally.”

Commenting on the success, Dave Brown, GRAHAM Highways Director, said:

“On behalf of GRAHAM, it was an absolute pleasure to receive the Regional Investment Programme Award for Collaboration. Having worked as part of Highways England’s supply chain for a number of years, I personally have noticed a step change in behaviour, and the will to challenge the status quo.

“The integrated project team in the South has been brilliant, and we could not have asked for a better team. We are looking forward to building on this success, and I would like to thank all of the people who nominated us for the award.”

Regional Delivery Partnership

GRAHAM is a DIP on Highways England’s Regional Delivery Partnership under Band A for Lot 2, which covers the Southeast and East region.

The six-year partnership replaced the Collaborative Delivery Framework.

GRAHAM, including design partners Sweco and Fairhurst, will initially deliver three design and build projects to improve Junctions 25 and 28 of the M25, and Junction 5 of the M2.