Stand C4 - South West Highway Alliance (SWHA)

The South West Highway Alliance (SWHA) is a partnership of 14 highway authorities in the south west of England that have formally agreed to work collaboratively to deliver more efficient highway services. Work to establish the Alliance commenced in 2012 and the partnership was formed in 2013, with the Alliance Manager appointed at the beginning of 2014.

The 14 south west local highway authorities collectively spend in the order of £1bn a year on the delivery of highway services, and early SWHA projects focused on collaborative procurement activities, which continues to be a strong theme for the Alliance.  As the SWHA has matured over the last seven years, its focus has shifted to a broader range of activities, which include sharing good (and bad!) practice examples, regional performance benchmarking and knowledge sharing, and delivering training.  

One of the great strengths of the Alliance is its 10 active, technical groups which cover a wide range of highway service disciplines and meet at least biannually.  These are well placed to develop and deliver specific initiatives to meet an industry need.  One example of this is the HIRAM toolkit, a product that was developed by the Climate Change Task & Finish Group, which helps authorities with the development of a core network that is resilient to events associated with Climate Change and helps qualify and quantify risk and economic payback of resilience building investments.

For further information about the SWHA visit: www.sw-ha.uk

or contact the Alliance Manager, Emma Cockburn: