Contact: Kevin Fuller, ext 7958

1. Summary

1.1 This report outlines the Highways Maintenance budget county-wide and the specific budget and works programme for Gosport.

2. Background

2.1 The Highways Maintenance budget for 2002/03, approved by the Executive Member for Environment on 15 April 2002, is £38,895,000. This sum comprises £18,783,000 revenue funding and £20,112,000 funding from the capital programme provision. Revenue funding caters for routine maintenance activities, such as running repairs, aids to movement, renewal of lines and signs, and the environmental heading which includes grass cutting. Street lighting and traffic signal maintenance together with minor traffic management are also funded from the revenue budget. The capital maintenance budget funds planned structural repairs, ie major maintenance strengthening, special maintenance, resurfacing and surface dressing treatments.

2.2 The road hierarchy in relation to maintenance budgets consists of the motorway and trunk road network, principal and non-principal roads. The trunk road network, including motorways, are major routes of national importance managed by the Highways Agency on behalf of the Department for Transport. Principal roads are all the remaining A class roads which are not trunk roads, whilst non-principal roads are all other adopted highways. In Gosport there are no trunk roads and the A32 is the only principal road.

Term Maintenance Contract

2.3 The budget allocation for 2002/03 reflects the impact of the prices which will be paid in the new term maintenance contract which commenced on 1 May 2002. This has required the transfer of funding between different elements of Highway Maintenance work to account for different pricing methods under the new contract.

Highway Management Reorganisation (Blueprint)

2.4 The implementation of the new highway management arrangements, with the creation of local Highway Units and Sub-Units, has had an impact on the allocation of the Highways Maintenance budget between the various budget holders. The allocation detailed below reflects these organisational changes.

2.5 In order to meet various Government targets, and in particular one relating to the condition of the highway network, Hampshire County Council recently signed up to a Local Public Service Agreement with the Government. If successful, a grant of up to £1.7 million may be available to further improve the network in line with the 10 year plan. However in order to achieve the requisite targets set out in the agreement priorities will need to be carefully considered to ensure funding is spent in the most cost effective way.

3. Highways Maintenance Revenue Budget (£18,783,000)

3.1 The budget allocations within ordinary maintenance (routine maintenance, aids to movement and environmental maintenance) have been maintained at a level to ensure that the safety of the highway network is preserved. The pricing of the new contract has resulted in elements of this work, particularly gully cleansing, environmental maintenance and precautionary salting, becoming significantly more expensive, whilst other areas of work have reduced in price. It has been necessary therefore to move funding within the total budget allocations to reflect these price changes.

3.2 Additional funding has been provided to cover the anticipated growth in the provision of intelligent transport systems during the year. There will also be an enhanced programme aimed at dealing with the backlog of refurbishment to traffic signals.

4. Street Lighting

4.1 The award of the contract for the supply of unmetered electricity for street lighting, signs and traffic lights to Scottish and Southern Energy was approved by the Executive Member for Environment on 10 September 2001. The contract, which reflects a 95% brown/5% green energy mix, began on 1 April 2002. The annual cost of this contract is very close to the price which was paid for 100% brown energy during 2001/02. This contract, which is at a fixed price for two years, represents good value and achieves progress towards the County Council's target of achieving a 90% brown/10% green energy mix by 2010.

4.2 The previous contract for the maintenance of street lighting equipment by David Webster Limited ended in March 2002. A new contract, based on price, quality and added value, has been awarded to Southern Electric Contracting and began on 1 April 2002. The contract will now also include the supply of labour and materials for the column replacement programme. An assessment of the cost of the new contract compared to the previous arrangements has been carried out. This indicates that the cost of the new contract, which is fixed in price for the first year, is lower by 8% in comparison with the cost of the previous contract during 2001/02.

4.3 The retendering of both these contracts for the supply of energy and maintenance of lighting equipment has resulted in the submission of competitive prices which are broadly equivalent to the costs paid in 2001/02.

5. Highway Systems Development

5.1 Allocations have been made to accommodate the cost of systems currently in development and to progress new systems during 2002/03. These include replacement ordering systems for the term maintenance contract and the street lighting maintenance contract.

6. Highways Maintenance Programme

Revenue Maintenance Programme

6.1 The revenue maintenance programme funds the reactionary minor repair works, such as pot-holes, signs, lines and emergencies. It also includes the environmental maintenance of grass, trees, shrubs and weeds together with an allowance for minor traffic management improvements.

6.2 The total allocation for Gosport for 2002/03 is £269,000. Details are set out in Appendix 1.

6.3 Further central budgets are held within the revenue programme which include such items as routine gully cleansing, winter maintenance and ordinary bridge maintenance.

7. Capital Maintenance Programme

7.1 The capital maintenance programme funds planned maintenance, including special maintenance, resurfacing and surface dressing. It also includes an allocation for essential structural repairs identified during the year. The total budget allocation for 2002/03 is £650,000, the details are set out in Appendix 1. The currently identified planned maintenance schemes in Gosport for implementation during 2002/03 are shown in Appendix 2.

Special Maintenance

7.2 The need for planned structural repairs to both footways and carriageways continues. A significant portion of the budget will be directed into footway structural repairs to help restore the condition of footways.

7.3 The funding for 2002/03 in Gosport supports a HAMP intervention of 80 for the principal road network and approximately 100 for the non-principal road network. This is comparable with the level supported in 2001/02.

Resurfacing

7.4 The funding for 2002/03 in Gosport supports a HAMP intervention of 60 which is comparable with the level supported in 2001/02.

Surface Dressing

7.5 Surface dressing is an extremely cost-effective way of prolonging the life of the carriageway, sealing cracks and restoring skid resistance. The total budget county-wide of £3,103,000 is managed centrally and for 2002/03 supports a HAMP intervention level of 50 on the principal road network. High performance surface dressing on the non-principal roads has a HAMP intervention of 40 and 60 for the urban and minor roads programme. These interventions show an improvement on the levels supported in 2001/02. The identified sites in Gosport are listed in Appendix 2.

7.6 The capital maintenance programme also supports other areas of work controlled centrally, including major maintenance and bridge maintenance.

Recommendation

That the report be noted.

7264/KFr

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