Connect Plus Services improves the sustainable operation of the M25

Connect Plus Services has the complex task of maintaining one of Europe’s busiest motorways, while ensuring the sustainability of native plant, animal and bird species that live next to the road.  Having deployed Esri’s ArcGIS platform, this joint venture organisation can now better protect the natural environment and, at the same time, operate more cost efficiently.

Connect Plus Services is responsible for the smooth operation of not only the M25 itself, but also the slip roads, trunk roads, junctions and bridges that together make up a vital transportation circuit around London.  Following the introduction of ArcGIS, the organisation can now make more informed decisions on how to mitigate the potential impact of its road maintenance schemes on the environment.  It can perform complex analyses of parcels of land adjacent to the motorway, identify important ecological corridors and help produce insightful environmental impact reports with the aim of protecting the native flora and fauna. 

Working alongside 228 miles of roads, the organisation’s environmental inspectors use Esri’s ArcGIS Collector app to collect environmental data and complete inspections 25% quicker than before.  They no longer have to record their environmental information on paper, then re-enter it when they get back to the office and, as a result, the business can perform more inspections, in more detail. 

Connect Plus Services is making further efficiencies by using ArcGIS to both improve the quality of its business data and make it more accessible to employees, partners and contractors.  For instance, the organisation expects to make cost efficiencies by giving contractors more accurate plot information relating to grass cutting and weed control activities.  Connect Plus Services can also submit data to its client, Highways England, for the national Environmental Information System (EnvIS) more easily, enabling a higher quality of environmental information to be contributed, in significantly less time.

“ArcGIS has become a critical tool in helping us ensure that the ongoing maintenance of the M25 has minimal adverse impacts on the environment.”

Jennifer Banks, GIS Specialist and Environmental Assistant, Connect Plus Services