Contact: Richard Chinn, tel: 02380 427000

1. Summary

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

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, comprises 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 the New Forest three roads form the motorway and trunk road network ( M27, A31 west of M27 and A36 north of M27 ). All other A class roads are principal roads.

3. Term Maintenance Contract

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

4. Highway Management Reorganisation (Blueprint)

4.1 The implementation of the new highway management arrangements, with the creation of four Hampshire Highways Areas and local Hampshire Highways offices, has had an impact on the allocation of the Highway Maintenance budget between the various budget holders. The allocation detailed below reflects these organisational changes.

4.2 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. The target that Hampshire County Council will be aiming to achieve is to halt deterioration on non-principal roads (all county roads other than principal roads) by the end of 2003, a year earlier than the Government target of 2004, and to show a slight improvement the year after. The County Council will try to achieve this by a continuation and improvement of targeting preventative and other maintenance techniques. Monitoring will be by way of Best Value Performance Indicators. If successful, a grant of up to £1.7 million may be available to further improve the network in line with the ten 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.

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

5.1 The budget allocations within ordinary maintenance (routine maintenance, aids to movement and environmental maintenance), have been kept at a level that ensures the safety of the highway network. 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.

5.2 Additional funding has been provided to cover 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.

6. Highway Systems Development

6.1 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.

7. Highways Maintenance Programme

Revenue Maintenance Programme

7.1 The revenue maintenance programme funds reactive minor repair works, such as potholes, signs, lines and emergencies. It also includes the environmental management of grass, trees, shrubs and weed control, together with an allowance for minor traffic management improvements.

7.2 The total allocation for New Forest for 2002/03 is £951,000 and details are set out in Appendix 1.

7.3 Further central budgets are held within the revenue programme which include such items as routine gully cleansing, winter maintenance and ordinary bridge maintenance, and performance-based elements of the term maintenance contract.

Capital Maintenance Programme

7.4 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 New Forest for 2002/03 is £1,461,000 and the details are also set out in Appendix 1.

Special Maintenance

7.5 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. The funding for 2002/03 supports a Highway Assessment of Maintenance Priorities (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. The sites in New Forest are listed in Appendix 2.

Resurfacing

7.6 The funding for 2002/03 supports a HAMP intervention of 60 which is comparable with the level supported in 2001/02. The sites in New Forest are also listed in Appendix 2.

Surface Dressing

7.7 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 45 on the principal road network. High performance surface dressing on the non-principal roads has a HAMP intervention of 40 and 70 for the urban and minor roads programme respectively. These interventions show an improvement on the levels supported in 2001/02. The treated sites in New Forest are also listed in Appendix 2.

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

Recommendation

That the report be noted.

7612/RC

APPENDIX 1

HAMPSHIRE HIGHWAYS WEST (NEW FOREST)

Revenue Budget 2002/03	£
Routine Maintenance (carriageway, footway repairs)	432,000
Gully Cleansing	25,000
Aids to Movement (signs and road markings)	112,000
Traffic Management TROs	6,000
Environmental (grass, trees, shrubs)	135,000
District Managed Grass	155,000
Weed Control Hazard Clearance Total	55,000 31,000 951,000
Capital Budget 2002/03 Principal Roads
Principal Roads Routine Structural Repairs	71,000
Principal Roads Special Maintenance	91,000
Principal Roads Resurfacing Total	227,000 389,000
Capital Budget 2002/03 Non Principal Roads
Non Principal Roads Routine Structural Repairs	636,000
Non Principal Roads Special Maintenance Non Principal Roads Resurfacing Non Principal Roads Tactile Paving Crossing Point Total	364,000 60,000 12,000 1,072,000
Total Maintenance Budget Allocation for New Forest	2,412,000