School children and large businesses are invited to submit fresh ideas and creative thinking about society’s expectations from future highways, as part of a competition to be launched by the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund.
Join other savvy professionals just like you at CIHT. We are committed to fulfilling your professional development needs throughout your career
Grants up to a possible £150,000 are offered as well as cash prizes of £5000 to schools for the best suggestions in response to the question: ‘What’s your vision of the way in which our roads could best work for us all as we square up to the challenges of the next 50 years?’
The competition celebrates 150 years since the birth of the organisation’s benefactor William Rees Jeffreys, who believed safe and appealing streets are crucial to improving quality of life.
“We aren’t just looking for the imagination, innovation and creativity of your ideas – we want to see how imaginatively and creatively they can be presented. We’re after compelling ideas, compellingly presented,” said Rees Jeffreys Road Fund trustee Andy Graham.
Entrants are encouraged to consider ideas for making road trips more enjoyable, promoting healthier and safer travel, changing travel trends and people friendly ways to use street space, as well as achieving public buy in to support change.
The competition will officially launch next week, with the trustees inviting guests to attend a free webinar on 14 September where the aims and objectives of the competition will be explained.
The competition could help inspire school children to consider pursuing careers in engineering, which is the aim of a separate initiative launched by National Highways that uses popular video game Minecraft to teach students about road design.
Three major planned highway schemes have been created in the game: the Lower Thames Crossing, the A303 upgrade past Stonehenge and the A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvement between Milton Keynes and Cambridge.
Through in game activities, the intention is that students can get a feeling for the range of skills used to deliver major road projects, including archaeology, biology, ecology, civil engineering, communications technology and coding.
(Photograph: National Highways)
#StepForward
Propose a colleague who successfully becomes a CIHT member and you’ll be automatically be entered into our free monthly prize draw where one lucky winner will receive a £50 John Lewis Gift Card.
Join other savvy professionals just like you at CIHT. We are committed to fulfilling your professional development needs throughout your career
{{item.AuthorName}} {{item.AuthorName}} says on {{item.DateFormattedString}}: