Highways & Civil Engineering Industry Update

It’s fair to say it’s been a bumpy road over the last few months and whilst the lockdown in the UK has caused some congestion on projects up and down the country, Joe Wilson, Director of Highways & Civil Engineering at Matchtech signals that there is now a lot of optimism in the industry in his industry update video.

Watch the video to find out more or read some of the highlights below.

View our latest Highways and Civil Engineering vacancies.

If you’re looking to hire engineers, click here.

The impact of lockdown

“We saw design offices close almost overnight, mobilising staff to work from home, and the same said for site construction work where it was closed down. Obviously, that led to a significant downturn in work and we believe it stayed that way for around 6 weeks or so.”

Getting through the worst of the lockdown

“Design work did still continue for those staff that were able to work from home, albeit at a slower pace. But also projects that were in their procurement phase continued to progress, which is really important for us in the industry to continue that pipeline of work for the future.”

“Major projects particularly have continued to invest in workload through the last couple of months particularly for us, SMART Motorway projects and the A14 project… that's now very close to completion and we're proud to say that we've played a large part in resourcing that project for the team.”

Week-on-week improvements

"Since (the lockdown restrictions were relaxed)… we've seen week to week improvements in demand of work from clients and people returning to work which has been absolutely brilliant! The positivity coming out of the industry now is flowing through, and we're hoping it can continue to increase week by week.”

On continued investment in Highways

“The good news coming from the highways industry particularly then, was the Highways England announcement of the SMART Motorway Alliance in mid-April showing they're continuing to invest in major projects moving forwards.”

Work picking up for HS2 and the Lower Thames Crossing

“We've seen an increase in workload in HS2 over the last 4 weeks or so around the geo-technical and ground investigation parts of that project. The same can also be said for the Lower Thames Crossing where we’re also starting to pick up work on the geo-technical side.”

On the ‘feel’ of the Highways & Civil Engineering industry right now

“So far, we feel like it's been a tough few months but certainly starting to get out of the back end of it now and feeling much more positive about how the industry looks moving forward, and we hope you guys are seeing the same levels of optimism.”

View our latest Highways and Civil Engineering vacancies.

If you’re looking to hire engineers, click here.