‘Thank you’ gifts for local communities as M5 works come to an end

Projects carried out by the road workers included renovating the eco garden at one school, maintenance work at a sports club and repairing potholes on a community centre access road.

Caption: Creating planters for students to grow food and vegetables at a school in Evesham

Ten new emergency areas have opened on the M5 between junctions 4A and 6 in Worcestershire as part of a National Highways’ nationwide programme.

The programme, to construct and install more than 150 additional emergency areas across the motorway network, was completed in March and included work on M1, M3, M4, M5, M20, M25 and M27.

Work started on the M5 in January last year and was completed at the end of February this year.

While the emergency areas were being constructed, the project team and supply chain completed the following local community initiatives: 

• Pothole repairs to the Wychwood Village Hall access road
• Tree clearance and maintenance works at Redditch Cricket, Hockey, Rugby and Squash Club including improvements to the car park, rugby pitches and sports club.
• Renovation of a garden at the De Montfort School in Evesham. The team enhanced the Eco and Garden Club’s outdoor space where students grow fruits and vegetables, promoting biodiversity and supporting the 25.8% of students on free school meals. The makeover included a greenhouse, shed, benches, sleepers, plants and landscaping.
• Sponsoring CFC Redditch girls football team 
• To inspire the next generation into a career in construction, the team attended 18 school and college careers events and also held an M5 Discovery Day when students from Worcester Sixth Form College were able to visit the M5 offices and compound and get first-hand insight into life in the highways industry.

As well as supplying materials and equipment, those that took part in the community work volunteered their time – a total of 554 hours. Suppliers involved included BMJV, Forkers, ATM and McCann Ltd.

Caption: The CFC team keeping warm pitchside in their National Highways sponsored jackets

National Highways Sponsor, Colin Thompson, said:

“We appreciate that any road works can cause some disruption so we, and our supply chain, try to give a little back to communities as a thank you for people’s patience.

“Thanks to our willing volunteers, we were able to help out a number of very worthy causes as well as hopefully inspiring the next generation of engineers and highways specialists.

“Work is now complete on the safety scheme and we have more than doubled the number of emergency areas on this section of the M5 providing drivers with more frequent opportunities to pull over should they break down or experience difficulties.” 

The efforts of the team were well received by the causes. Gemma Hobbs-Beasley, from The De Montfort school, said:

“The newly rejuvenated outdoor area will not only provide opportunities for physical skills, knowledge and understanding, but will boost confidence and social skills. It enables students to be hands on with nature and to improve our mental health and reduce anxiety levels. Outdoor learning helps to build students resilience and encourages risk taking whilst offering a new learning environment.”

Dave Roberts from the Redditch sports club said:

“The work has saved the club a considerable amount of time, effort and money, and made a massive improvement to the appearance of the overall club. Furthermore, with having this work completed means the small amount of money the club has can be put back into the club to help the young teams with equipment, therefore we can prove essential kit that the young children need.”

Caption: Carrying out maintenance work at the sports club

Andrew Fitzpatrick, Senior Lead for Progression at Worcester Sixth Form College, said:

“The students really valued the Discovery Day, particularly being able to drive a dump truck virtually. It was great to hear from professionals in the sector ranging from civil engineers to quantity surveyors. Many of our students want to apply for degree apprenticeships but they are often limited by their knowledge of industry, the Discovery Day showed them the huge number and variety of opportunities available to them in the Built Environment.”