Archived decisions

Contact: Chris Wilson, tel: 01962 892850 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report outlines progress with regard to the 2005/06 Highway Maintenance and Minor Capital Works Programmes and gives an update on the 2005/06 Highway Maintenance Budget.

2. Background

2.1 As previously reported, the Highway Maintenance Programme is funded from both revenue and capital allocations.

2.2 The Revenue maintenance programme funds minor works such as pothole repairs, routine drainage work (including gully cleaning), signs and road markings, environmental maintenance of grass verges, weed control and highway emergencies. Minor bridge works and winter maintenance are also funded from revenue allocations.

2.3 The Capital Maintenance Programme funds planned maintenance, including Special Maintenance, resurfacing and surface dressing, and also provides for essential repairs to the structure of the highway, eg programmed patching.

3. Highway maintenance Budget and programme 2005/06

3.1 The county-wide Highway Maintenance Budget for 2005/06, approved by the Executive Member for Environment, is £49.418 million. This sum comprises £22.090 million revenue funding and £27.328 million funding from the capital programme. The capital funding provision includes an additional £3.678 million specifically for highway maintenance works, the emphasis being on the maintenance of minor rural carriageways and urban footways. These budgets are spread across the eleven districts for local service delivery and are also used to fund centrally managed programmes such as surface dressing, winter maintenance and performance elements of the highways Term Maintenance Contract.

Revenue Maintenance Budget and Programme

3.2 The total allocation for Winchester for 2005/06 is £910,000. Progress throughout the year to date has been in line with the spend profile and it is expected that the programme will be completed within time and budget constraints. A budget monitoring statement is included within Appendix 1.

Capital Maintenance Budget and Programme

3.3 The total allocation for Winchester for 2005/06 is £2.434 million which includes additional support from the extra £3.678 million county-wide funding. The funding allocation for the capital maintenance "planned works" programme is based on the proven Highways Assessment of Maintenance Priorities (HAMP) rating system and has reflected the agreed intervention levels. The HAMP rating intervention level directs funding to those maintenance schemes displaying a higher maintenance need. Planned maintenance repairs undertaken through the capital maintenance programme include surface dressing, special maintenance and resurfacing schemes.

3.4 This year's schemes are progressing well, with the expectation that the "planned" maintenance programme will be delivered within time and budget constraints. Progress on the individual schemes is shown in Appendix 2.

3.5 Surface dressing is an extremely cost effective way of prolonging the life of the carriageway or footway, sealing any cracks and restoring the surface texture. The total county-wide programme for 2005/06 is £3.22 million (including approximately £125,000 safety engineering related surface dressing), which is managed centrally. All sites on this year's carriageway programme for the Winchester area have been completed and the footway sites started in October.

4. Minor Capital Works

4.1 The Minor Capital Works Programme is funded from the capital allocation based on the Local Transport Plan submission to the Department for Transport. In the 2005/06 programme, £200,000 was allocated county-wide, of which £20,000 was allocated to the Winchester area. The schemes recommended by Members at the meeting of this Panel on 1 March 2005 and included in this year's programme are:

(i) Prospect Road, New Alresford - provision of new footpath

This scheme has been designed and ordered from the contractor. It is expected to be constructed in January 2006; and

(ii) Mislingford Road, Swanmore - new footpath link

At the time of writing, this scheme is being designed. Again, it is expected to be constructed in January 2006.

5. Impact Assessments

5.1 This report provides a position statement only, therefore an impact assessment in terms of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act has not been undertaken.

Recommendation

That this report be noted.

583/CW

APPENDIX 1

BUDGET MONITORING STATEMENT - WINCHESTER AREA

APPENDIX 2

SPECIAL MAINTENANCE PROGRAMME 2005/06 - PROGRESS