Highway Engineering & Design Consultants

Our expertise at-a-glance

Via Employer Roles or as Contractor’s Designers, we operate across several markets including strategic roads, local roads and private developments. Our clients include national government agencies, local authorities, developers and contractors. Our project managers work closely with our clients to understand their needs are fully addressed.

Highways

Expertise in the design of all aspects of highway schemes particularly looking at achieving earthwork balances through integration with mass haul.

Structures

Extensive experience in the design of highway related structures including road, rail and river bridges and crossings ensuring buildability is integral in the design process.

Geotechnical

Collaborative working with contractors to determine acceptability limits to maximise material re-use and avoid off-site disposal.

Remediation

Expertise in the assessment of contaminated materials to enable re-use without impact on human health.

Transport planning

Expertise in planning, modelling and design associated with the implementation of transportation and related infrastructure projects.

Transport Modelling

We tailor our approach and adopt the most appropriate modelling package, such as Saturn, Cube, Aimsun, PTV VISUM, PTV VISSIM, EMME & LinSig.

Appraisal & business cases

We support clients throughout the appraisal process, in analysing the operational, economic and environmental factors of proposed schemes.

Active travel

Our Active Travel team plans and delivers safe, efficient, reliable and attractive active and sustainable transport services to transform society.

Multi-modal studies

We combine extensive experience and understanding of good practice principles and methodologies to provide strategic advice for all modes of transport.

Waste

Effective management and environmental monitoring to minimise unnecessary removal and to provide cost-effective solutions.

Environment

Assistance to navigate through the environmental legislation covering services across a wide range of environmental aspects, including ecology, acoustics, road lighting and PAS 2080 carbon management in infrastructure.

Landscape architecture

Extensive experience of delivering appropriate landscape design proposals associated with highway schemes and public realm developments.

End-to-end highways & transportation solutions

Sweco is at the forefront of digital progression – using technology to enhance our delivery and the safety and sustainability of our services across urban and inter-urban transport networks. We deliver local and national projects for a wide-ranging spectrum of public and private clients. The services we offer range from the design of highway and junction geometry and drainage, to various ancillary items such as vehicle restraint systems, traffic signs, road markings and utility management. Our teams have also drafted national design standards for use throughout the industry.

Why choose Sweco highways consultants?

Value engineering & cost certainty

Our extensive experience in working in the Design and Build market makes Sweco proficient in delivering innovative, cost effective solutions to problems faced in a wide range of areas. We bring this experience to bear in a Client facing role to ensure that value for money and cost certainty is achieved, while ensuring strict adherence to statutory process to obtain the necessary approvals allowing projects to be constructed.

Our focus centres around robust Value Engineering processes ensuring appropriately experienced staff are available to review proposals including buildability aspects and advance works to reduce risk. Scheme cost estimates, which undergo regular review, are prepared based on realistic levels of contingency, inflation, optimism bias and material rates ensuring regional variations are accommodated in an open transparent process to ensure auditability.

Environmental experts

Sweco have extensive experience in leading the development of major infrastructure projects including those impacting upon highly sensitive environmental assets. Success of these schemes always depends on having a collaborative approach with stakeholders to generate deliverable solutions.

We adopt a pragmatic and pro-active approach to our environmental assessments and planning applications and place great value in building successful long-term working relationships with all stakeholders. We have staff with direct experience of working on the Cross Tay Link Road and are fully aware of the specific constraints facing this project including the River Tay SAC, Scone Palace Garden and Designed Landscape and the Scheduled Monuments amongst others.

Leading project management & execution

Sweco understand the importance of having a dedicated Project Manager (PM) appointed to each project to ensure consistent deliver through the project lifecycle. On appointment we sit down with our Clients and carry out an expectation survey with the aim of understanding the Clients’ key objectives, constraints and concerns. Our PM will act as the primary point of contact between the Client and Sweco to enable clear and concise lines of communication.

Supporting the Project Manager is a multidisciplinary team of expert team leads in fields such as highways, structures, geotechnics and environment. Our PM will be responsible for managing this team of technical experts and enabling progress meetings, workshops and audits as required. Key to successful delivery is effective communication between the Client and Sweco. On a monthly basis we will deliver a set of management documents including a project dashboard outlining progress past and planned, changes to work scope, key project risks, spend against forecast and update to programme.

Surveys & land know-how

Critical to delivery to programme is the availability of accurate survey information (topographical, ground, archaeological, drainage, environmental and utilities). We appoint a dedicated Survey Manager responsible for coordinating surveys ensuring access constraints are identified and liaisons with landowners and affected businesses are held in a timely manner.

Community & stakeholder engagement

We will engage with stakeholders and other interested parties throughout the delivery process (through both formal consultation and informal information sessions as required) and we understand the importance of buy-in from stakeholders to support the scheme. To achieve this we will engage early with stakeholders through our Stakeholder Engagement & Community Benefits Manager. This role provides the primary point of contact with stakeholders to ensure a consistent message is communicated and records of discussions are maintained on the Stakeholder Register.

Ensuring commitments made to all Stakeholder are built into the final solution. In addition Sweco are familiar with and are actively delivering Community Benefit commitments across a range of projects. We will develop a Community Benefits Plan setting out how we will deliver agreed commitments and the timescale for delivery. We will provide a monitoring report that tracks progress and which is reviewed at progress meetings with the Council