Councils have responded to the UK’s flooding disaster by publishing emergency closures and diversions instantly on a new national platform.
Somerset County Council have responded to the crisis in the Somerset levels by publishing their diversions on the web in the last 24 hours, via an app created by ELGIN, a source of UK roadworks information.
ELGIN’s Traffic Management App was designed to change the way local road closures and diversions are communicated live and instantly to the web and via Twitter – and on a national platform.
Stoke became the first to tweet out this vital information, while Dorset, Devon, Coventry, Warwickshire, East Sussex, Surrey, Bracknell Forest and the Isle of Wightare all published their diversion routes live on the web. Wokingham also responded to the severe flooding in the Thames valley area by going live on Tuesday.
Iain Thornton from Ringway Island Roads (Isle of Wight Council) commented: "It only takes a minute to create an emergency road closure and diversion route using the TM app. (IOW Council are using the app to update landslides, floods and works.)
ELGIN chairman Shane O’Neill added: "There has never before existed a national platform to instantly publish local closures and diversions and it isfantastic that so many local highway authorities areresponding to the flooding and utilising the newdiversions app to communicate instantly to emergency services and the public."
