Archived decisions

Contact: Geoff Topps, ext 7959 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 The following decisions are sought:

(i) That the attached Project Appraisal (Appendix 1) in respect of Section 3 Waterlooville Town Centre, at an estimated cost of £7,250,000, be approved.

(ii) That the progress report for the A3 project be noted.

2. Reason

2.1 The scheme supports Aim 1 (Maximising life opportunities), Aim 2 (Stewardship of the environment) and Aim 4 (Building strong and safe communities) of the Corporate Strategy by creating the standard and quality of public transport facilities along this major transport corridor that will stimulate greater use and attract new users who would otherwise use their cars.

2.2 The Department for Transport has approved major scheme funding of £25.1 million for this project and its implementation must now be managed to complement the terms of the funding provision. Approval of Section 3 will allow the project to proceed in order to achieve the planned overall project completion in 2007.

2.3 On 14 September 2004 the Executive Member for Environment recommended approval of the attached Project Appraisal (Appendix 1) in respect of Section 3 Waterlooville Town Centre, and on 19 October 2004 it was also recommended by the Buildings, Land and Procurement Panel.

3. Other Options Considered and Rejected

3.1 Various options for a north-south link between Portsmouth and Horndean were studied as part of the transportation studies undertaken for the South Hampshire Rapid Transit network. Neither an off-road solution nor an on-road tram-based system was very feasible or appropriate and an on-road bus priority system using the existing A3 corridor was recommended as the most suitable solution.

4. Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Decision Maker or Other Executive Member Consulted - None.

5. Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee - Not applicable.

6. Reason(s) for the Matter being dealt with if Urgent - Not applicable.

Approved by: ........................................ Date: .....................

Councillor T K Thornber

Contact: Geoff Topps, ext 7959 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 Section 3 of the A3 Bus Priority Corridor is the third of five sections of highway works being undertaken on the Hampshire part of the route. It is the mid-point of this project and includes significant works in Waterlooville, the major destination point on the north part of the route.

1.2 The A3 Corridor is a major public transportation scheme that forms part of the SHRT network. This has now been further encompassed by Solent Transport which will develop public transport issues over an even greater area for South Hampshire. Additional information about the project, partner organisations, method of implementation, etc was given in previous Progress Reports and Project Appraisals to the Executive Member for Environment on 22 January 2001, 10 September 2002 and 26 November 2003, and progress has been reported to both the former South East Hampshire Transportation Panel and the Havant Highway and Transport Advisory Panel.

1.3 These reports have approved both the Transportation Capital Programme funding for the initial works and elements of the Capital Major Scheme Funding, which has been approved by the Department for Transport for the remainder of the project.

1.4 When completed the project is set to support corporate and national strategies by achieving the following targets:

(i) an 18% increase in bus passenger trips along the corridor;

(ii) up to 20% decrease in morning peak hour bus journey times;

(iii) a 4% modal shift from car use along the corridor; and

(iv) bus frequency increased by 50%.

1.5 It is difficult this early in such a long term project to determine if moves towards these targets are being achieved. Moreover the actual disruption during construction can be a temporary detriment to most of these factors and the real evaluation of performance can only be made after completion, when conditions have settled back to equilibrium and time allowed for the new facilities to attract new users.

1.6 The project involves on-road bus priority measures to help improve and maintain service reliability, new high quality passenger waiting facilities and more frequent modern high quality buses. This is a large amount of work that is being provided incrementally over a five year period. Ultimately it will raise the standard of public transport along the corridor, provide better integration with the local network and create a viable alternative to car travel for trips along the corridor and beyond.

2. Funding and Programme

2.1 From 1999/00 to the end of 2002/03 £5.6 million of Transportation Capital Programme funding was provided for the project. From 2003/04 onwards Capital Major Scheme funding is meeting all project costs until 2007 to a maximum of £25.1 million. A total of £3.6 million was spent in 2003/04 and now that resources have been fully engaged to finish the project, it is estimated that £7.5 million will be spent in 2004/05. Similar amounts will be spent in 2005/06 and 2006/07, the extent of which will be governed by construction progress and project management to remain within the budget.

2.2 On 9 December 2003 the project appraisal for the advanced works for Section 3 Waterlooville Town Centre was approved. The project appraisal for the whole of Section 3 is appended to this report, which describes and explains all the final proposals that have been determined for Waterlooville Town Centre. The cost estimate is the total for all works and fees associated with this section of the A3 Corridor, including all the updated advanced works costs covered in the previous project appraisal.

2.3 Design and construction progress has been gaining momentum following the delay of the funding decision from December 2002 to October 2003. The investigation and development of Sections 4 and 5 north of Waterlooville are now being progressed in tandem to help speed up the delivery and achieve completion in 2007.

3. Construction Contract

3.1 The repetitive nature of the work and contractor and site staff involvement in the design of remaining sections is starting to show benefits in time saving and shared understanding. There are also technical and administration fee savings from avoiding repeat tender processes for each section of the route.

4. Section 1 - Widley to Purbrook

4.1 The roadworks element of Section 1 has been complete for over a year and is functioning well. There have been occasional problems with vandalism of some of the new bus shelters and drivers not complying with the reduced speed limit, but it is anticipated that the new closed circuit television (CCTV) system will improve this. Observation of the new hollow kerb drainage performance is being used to determine the long term maintenance requirements and improvements that can be incorporated in the design of future sections.

5. Section 2a - Purbrook Village

5.1 The main roadworks here were finished in July 2004 although the complicated accommodation works are still being completed. Both regular liaison with and information for local businesses has helped build up a good working rapport with the site staff while carrying out the works in this confined part of the busy A3.

6. Section 2b - Purbrook to Waterlooville

6.1 In April 2004 British Telecom formally confirmed that its fibre optic cable diversion works had been completed approximately a year sooner than estimated, avoiding most of the programme delays this would have caused. This has allowed the remaining road widening on the west side of the A3 to be completed, with minimal impact to the project due to the effective partnership working with the contractor Dyer and Butler. This should now allow the substantial completion of the roadworks by the end of September 2004, with the southbound traffic signal bus gate becoming operational in October. The new hedgerow planting and replacement trees have established well this summer and all the landscape planting will be maintained for a three year period.

7. Section 3 - Waterlooville Town Centre

Project Appraisal

7.1 The Project Appraisal for Section 3 is attached as Appendix 1. A location plan is also attached and the design layout plan of the proposals, drawing number 17/A3/77/3/100, will be displayed at the meeting. All relevant details of this section are contained in the Project Appraisal.

8. Section 4 - Waterlooville to Cowplain and Section 5 - Cowplain to Horndean

8.1 The original feasibility proposals for north of Waterlooville have been reviewed during development of the preliminary design. The priority objectives have been refreshed so that the limited budget is focused on solutions for the most important problems, in a manner that complements the character of this part of the route. This includes significant highway changes and environmental improvements in Cowplain, where there is a wide existing road and complex side road junctions and pedestrian crossings. There are also several side road junctions along this part of the A3 with significant accident histories, which will be improved with built-in bus priority measures.

8.2 Consultation has already been undertaken for the preliminary proposals. Following the success in Waterlooville new Consultative Panels have been formed for each section so that officers and Members from the County Council and District Councils, as well as representatives from Parish Councils and local stakeholders, can be informed of developments and discuss proposals.

8.3 Public exhibitions were held at local venues at the end of July with more to be held in September. This will be followed by adhoc meetings with interested parties as the detailed design is developed, culminating in a second round of public exhibitions of the final proposals in summer 2005.

8.4 Originally the A3 Corridor proposals stopped at the Causeway Roundabout in Horndean with a view to linking with a separate proposal for a strategic park-and-ride site nearby. This does not form part of the A3 Corridor project and there are no immediate plans to promote park-and-ride here at the moment. Therefore the review of Section 5 has taken the opportunity to study the A3 further north to Clanfield (the remainder of the existing Zip bus route) to see what improvements might be considered there. Such works can only be undertaken if the project budget can support them and it can be justified to the Department for Transport that they provide suitable improvements for the bus priority. It is expected that, if successful, these will be lower-key improvements such as new bus shelters, Real-Time Passenger Information (RTPI), CCTV, minor roadworks and junction changes.

9. Advanced Works for Sections 4 and 5

9.1 Advanced works are being prepared to keep pace with the overall project programme. These are fundamental to the project and are common to many of the proposals that may develop into the final proposals. The estimated costs of these works is shown below, all of which are part of the allocated major scheme funding for these sections of the route:

9.2 New street lighting is to be installed now due to the poor state of some existing lighting columns and concerns over lighting levels and road safety. Drainage maintenance and improvements must be completed

before any road layout changes are undertaken and ducting for CCTV and RTPI needs to be installed before or during any Statutory Undertakers service diversions.

10. The Portsmouth Part of the Route

10.1 Portsmouth City Council is continuing to progress its elements of work that form part of the corridor from its own Transportation Capital Programme. North End Centre is an area in need of bus priority improvement but which also has similar pressure for pedestrian, cycle, environmental, traffic and parking improvements. These are all best considered and addressed at the same time and a study is being considered in order to be able to make a proposal as part of Portsmouth City Council's second Local Transport Plan in 2005.

11. A3 Corridor Quality Bus Partnership

11.1 A signing ceremony was held on 19 November 2003 to celebrate the partnership success so far and detail stakeholder commitments for the future of the project. This included the launch of the new ZIP livery for the First 41 A3 Corridor service, which will be used as a marketing device to raise the profile of the work, facilities and services along the corridor.

12. Real-Time Passenger Information

12.1 The PORTAL RTPI system in Portsmouth is one of the first using new generation technology. Initially this system will be emulated by the bus shelter information screens in Hampshire, with the new county-wide system being developed to be compatible with both this and different systems of other neighbouring authorities. The installation of the infrastructure for the electronic screens and the development of the information transfer between authorities has taken longer than expected and the first signs will now be erected in Hampshire in early 2005.

13. Bus Shelter Procurement

13.1 The effective sponsorship of free new bus shelter advertising (where planning permission allows) by Adshel has proved too unreliable and such poor performance reflects on the whole of the project. To guard against such a problem the funding bid included an allowance for purchasing new bus shelters and this will now be used to purchase all the remaining new bus shelters. This is likely to be in the order of 50 new shelters of various size and configuration, with a uniform identity and flexibility to incorporate clean solar energy generation. A special contract has been prepared for bus shelter provision on the A3 Corridor so that it can be managed properly and the required timescales and quality can be met. This will be let independently of the main construction contract due to the specialist suppliers involved and is expected to have a value of between £250,000 and £450,000 depending on the number of shelters supplied.

14. Closed Circuit Television

14.1 The installation of the infrastructure for CCTV cameras along the route has been delayed in order to adopt a different, more economical cable routing layout . This is now well underway and while the first cameras will not be operational before the end of 2004 it will now be possible to commission all the new cameras as far north as Waterlooville in a short space of time. This will provide a large area of immediate impact which should assist in awareness of the new surveillance and the improvements it is expected to bring.

15. Bus Lane Use and Enforcement

15.1 The operation of completed sections of the route will continue to be monitored for the duration of the project. Some complaints have been received about vehicle speeds, and traffic speed surveys have been arranged to quantify the scale and extent of any possible problem. The safety record of the new road layout so far has been good and in general drivers seem to have adapted to the new conditions well.

Recommendations

1. That attached Project Appraisal (Appendix 1) in respect of Section 3 Waterlooville Town Centre, at an estimated cost of £7,250,000, be approved.

2. That the progress report for the A3 project be noted.

8852/GT