Highway maintenance plan

Part C – Financial and performance management

7.1 General

A fundamental requirement of delivering Best Value is to implement effective systems for programming and prioritising highway maintenance activities. Ideally sufficient funding would be available to effect a wide range of maintenance options, but even with limited budgets some options are still likely to be available above and beyond statutory and safety obligations.

Systems for highway maintenance need to support the wider framework of corporate and departmental policies and their relative allocation of priorities. These can be summarised as follows:

Strategic Level, Including such matters as :-

• corporate priorities and objectives
• Local Transport Plan objectives and targets
• Best Value Performance Indicators and targets
• Public Service Agreement targets
• maintenance, network management and other local transport services

Maintenance Level, including such matters as :-

• core network objectives
• maintenance service activity
• maintenance service priority
• review against transport and strategic level priorities.

The establishment of priorities is an iterative process working through the strategic and maintenance levels and continuously reviewing to achieve Best Value.

7.2 Public engagement

As the main purpose of highway maintenance is to maintain the highway network for the safe and convenient movement of people and goods, engagement with the community to discover their views and priorities and to take account of them in the decision-making process is clearly fundamental.

Statutory consultations on Best Value and comprehensive consultations on the Local Transport Plan have been undertaken, with specific consultations on highway maintenance which are carried out through the annual NHT Public Satisfaction Survey.

7.3 Statutory duties

The highest priority for any highway maintenance activity is the compliance with statutory duties and safety obligations. Statutory duties are defined under various enactments with particular emphasis in the Highways Act 1980.

In the main, the statutory obligations in regard to highway maintenance cover safety implications of risks to highway users and these are covered under the safety inspection regime in 5.2, risk assessments in 5.5, investigatory levels in 5.8 and Category 1 defects in 5.6.

Statutory duty to maintain is therefore covered under the risk management regime. The minimum level of highway maintenance funding must be sufficient to meet the statutory requirements.

7.4 Balancing core network objectives

The establishment of priorities has to take account of the relative priorities of the core network objectives of:

• safety
• serviceability
• sustainability.

As discussed above, safety objectives relating to fulfilling minimum statutory duties is the highest priority and must be met. All remaining objectives can be programmed and prioritised with account being taken of:

• safety implications
• risk assessments
• corporate and departmental policies
• maintenance policies
• views of highway users and the public
• size of maintenance budget.

7.5 Balancing priorities by type

The broad priorities for the respective types of highway maintenance will generally be determined by outcome of safety and service inspections and structural condition surveys assessed through the risk management regime, the Authority's policies and the views of the consumer.

As part of the budget making cycle, it is important to establish priorities and programmes for each of the maintenance types as follows:

• reactive maintenance — attending to Category 1 defects and other urgent safety matters arising from inspections or user information
• routine maintenance — providing defined standards of serviceability
• programmed maintenance — providing coordinated sustainable schemes and projects based upon best value and whole life costing considerations.
• regulation — regulating occupation, interference or obstruction of the network
• winter service — providing defined standards of salting and clearance of ice and snow
• weather and other emergencies — planning for emergency response.

Priorities and programmes in respect of regulation, winter service and weather and other emergencies are largely determined by the level of specified service and therefore should not need any special consideration. However, the levels of service should take account of possible budgetary implications and consistency where interfacing with neighbouring service providers.

With regard to reactive, routine and programmed maintenance, a structured approach to programming and priorities is required. The budget setting cycle should take account of the relative priorities of these types, having regard to historical conditions, and seek to increase the proportion of programmed to reactive maintenance. This should lead to a corresponding decrease in reactive maintenance in the longer term. The consideration of programming and priorities should take account of the following:

reactive maintenance essentially comprises the rectification of Category 1 defects. Other urgent safety matters in accordance with the specified standards of response, and the priorities for action and response will be determined exclusively by risk assessment. This could include such options as signing, temporary repair or first time permanent repair.

routine maintenance provides defined standards of network serviceability maximising availability, reliability, integrity and quality. Although programmes are linked to the defined standards, priorities will be largely determined from service inspections, condition surveys, and user requests, combining both routine maintenance activities and other street related activities into a coordinated programme.

programmed maintenance seeks to deliver a sustainable outcome with added community value and provides value for money through minimising whole life costs. The ability to target maintenance so as to be able to repudiate 3rd party claims and reduce liabilities should be considered as a means of 'Invest to Save'

Priorities and programmes should be developed for carriageways, footways and cycleways in respect of the structure, the surface and the edge conditions. Priorities will be determined from structural condition surveys incorporating both machine based surveys and visual inspection surveys, taking into account skid and slip resistance. Where extensive traffic management measures are necessary for major maintenance schemes on higher category roads, consideration should be given to rescheduling other routine maintenance activities to take advantage of these measures and, if appropriate, taken into account in the planning and contract management process.

7.6 Balancing priorities by category

Within each type of maintenance activity, the various categories need to be prioritised. For prioritisation, account should be taken of the Councils policies and standards, structural surveys and visual inspections, user complaints and consumer consultation as appropriate.

The categories within the various maintenance activity types are as follows:

Reactive

• all elements — permanent repair of Category 1 defects identified by safety inspections detailed in 5.2 and prioritised by risk assessment
• all elements — sign and make safe items that cannot be repaired immediately but otherwise would cause danger determined by risk assessment
• all elements — initial temporary repair for safety purposes determined by risk assessment.

Routine

• carriageways, footways and cycleways — minor works and patching arising from safety and service inspections and determined through risk assessments
• drainage systems and iron works — cleansing and repair determined by service standards and largely safety and service inspections
• embankments and cuttings — stabilisation repairs identified mainly by service inspections
• landscaped areas — grass cutting defined by service standards
• trees and hedges — management of overhanging or overgrown, diseased or unstable items or those causing obstruction identified mainly through service inspections or user complaints
• scavenging and sweeping — removal of debris or spillages through safety inspections or user reports
• fences and safety barriers — minor repairs identified through service inspections
• road markings and studs — replacement identified largely through safety inspections and service inspections in accordance with service standards
• signs and bollards — cleansing, repair and replacement determined through service standards, safety and service inspections and user reports
• network integrity — operational efficiency determined through service inspections.

Programmed

• carriageways, footways and cycleways — Resurfacing and Reconstruction (R & R) or surface treatment defined by service standards and prioritised by machine based or visual inspection surveys.

Regulatory

• licenses and permits — defined by service standards
• management of utilities and other regulatory functions — defined by legislation.

Winter Service

• pre treatment — salt storage, ice prediction system, forecasting service, grit bins and precautionary salting determined by service standards.
• post treatment and snow clearance — determined largely by service standards with input from user reports.

Weather and other Emergencies:

• flooding, drought, high winds and high temperatures — remedial and safety measures largely determined by service standards with problems identified through the National Severe Weather Warning Service, highway inspections and user reports.
• other emergencies — dealt with through the Cleveland Emergency Planning Unit or the Council's Emergency Plan(s) and led corporately.