Works register is one for the roads

A simplified Internet-based alternative to Digital?s dumped national roadworks register could well be rolled out by this autumn, writes Peter Walker.

Last August, following years of delays, the then Department of Transport (now merged with the Department of the Environment) pulled the plug on Digital?s contract to develop a #30 million register aimed at cutting traf- fic chaos by co-ordinating roadworks.

Now details of the government?s proposed alternative have gone out to consultation. The new scheme would use file transfer protocol to shift data between systems.

Utilities wishing to notify highway authorities about planned roadworks through FTP would need Net-connected systems ? many are thought to already to be suitably set-up.

The system, which would lead to a series of local databases instead of one main national database, would be ready by 1 November ? around the same time Digital?s system would have been rolled-out. Utilities may even by charged for using non-electronic methods when sending notices.

Fears about disputes over regional borders ? which originally prompted the government to propose a national scheme ? should be addressed by a national street gazetteer, which Ordinance Survey is to build and manage.