Archived decisions

Environment and Transportation Select Committee

Briefing note on highway issues to help inform the Select Committee on decisions about further investigations.

1 Highway Condition assessments - how we measure highway condition

1.1 What is the condition of the highways in Hampshire? Unfortunately the answer can be rather complicated. Are we talking about just the roads, or the roads and pavements, do we include traffic signs, road markings, street lighting, verges, the quality of winter maintenance etc. etc.? Are we trying to compare with previous years or with other authorities?

1.2 There are a number of different highway condition assessment methods. Most of them tend to use `Intervention Levels' as the basis for assessment. This basically means that although most road or footway surfaces might not be in `as built' condition, they are still perfectly serviceable and do not need any maintenance work. Once a road or footway has deteriorated to an extent that maintenance work is considered worthwhile, then we say that it has reached an intervention level. Intervention levels can vary depending upon the type of road or footway. This is similar to saying that the intervention level for the paintwork on your front door is when it starts to looks a bit dull; for your window frames when it starts to craze; and for your garden shed when it starts to peel.

1.3 Over the past few years we have seen the introduction of electronic data collection surveys for highway condition, which are starting to replace traditional visual inspections on roads. The technology is still not sufficiently reliable to give robust, consistent results. This will take a few more years.

1.4 These kinds of surveys only assess surface condition. They do not assess underlying structural strength or other important factors such as the condition of drainage etc. Hence the majority of highway condition assessments only give a part of the overall picture.

2 Best Value Performance Indicators - how the Government measures highway condition.

2.1 The Government prescribes the survey techniques for Local Authorities in order to ensure consistency the way the surveys are carried out, how the data is processed and how results are reported nationally. BVPI's can have an impact on CPA and LTP scores

2.2 As well advances occurring to highway condition survey methods, the Government's rules for data collection and reporting these indicators have also changed annually in some cases. This makes comparisons between one year and another very difficult and does not yet provide us with accurate longer term trend information.

3 How do we measure public opinion?

3.1 As well as annual public surveys covering the whole range of Hampshire County Council services, we also carry out more detailed public surveys relating specifically to highways. These detailed surveys cover a variety of issues from road and footway condition, speed of repairs and other related items such as Winter Maintenance. The detailed Highway surveys are carried out approximately every three to four years and were done in 1999, 2003 and 2006.

3.2 A presentation by MORI of the 2006 survey will be held on 10^th July in the Records Office. MORI's interpretation and analysis of the results, particularly with regard to national trends and comparison with other authorities will help us better understand the results and the reliability of the data.

4 Highway Management - how we presently allocate funding and manage the maintenance of our highways

4.1 Traditionally, highway maintenance revenue funding has always been short term. Local budgets are set annually, usually based on allocations of previous years, with cuts or additional funding based on other corporate spending pressures that the Cabinet face. Allocations are only known a short time before the year starts.

4.2 Funding for structural maintenance is supported through the LTP and there is a slightly greater degree of predictability due to the indicative allocations identified for future years. However the funding is still subject to variation.

4.3 The allocation of funding is complex with a number of different processes applied to different areas of the budget. For some operational budgets such as those for pot hole repairs, minor emergency repairs and hazard clearance, are split on historic need and a formulaic approach dependent on the size and importance of that part of the network.

4.4 Planned maintenance schemes (e.g. the larger resurfacing or footway repair jobs) are a traditional indicator of our ability to forward plan. When budgets are tight, it is often the planned schemes which are dropped in order to continue funding the reactive emergency repairs.

4.5 In some cases there are ongoing legal or contractual commitments for items such as Street Lighting, Intelligent Transport Systems (traffic signals)and agency managed grass cutting. These are top sliced from the budget. This means that when cuts have to be made, they may occur on items that are technically of a higher priority (as in 4.4 above) but perhaps the only items we have the discretion to reduce.

5 Asset Management

5.1 Asset Management is a new government-led approach to managing the highway asset, requiring a longer term view so that the changing needs of an assets throughout its life is understood and managed (e.g. looking at whole life costs, long term investment planning etc). It requires prioritising between difference highway related issues and understanding of Service Options (spending less on the less important things in order to spend more on the important things).

5.2 For example, an Asset Management approach may result in a change to a higher level of expenditure on preventive maintenance (i.e. on roads that are considered not too bad) and less on the worst roads (which although in very poor condition, won't cost any more to repair if they are left another few years).

5.3 The asset management approach does require knowledge of your assets: quantities, age, location, condition, work records etc. Because of our traditional short term approach the data we presently hold is very patchy.

6 Member Involvement - what part can members play in the above issues and how can members influence events

6.1 Officers (and probably government) will be looking to members to provide guidance and direction on :-

· Service Options - what `steady state' level of maintenance do you want for main roads, minor roads, urban footways, rural footways, verges, winter maintenance etc?

· Policy prioritisation - should we spend more on maintenance and less on new improvements? Is reducing accidents more important than reducing congestion etc?

· Investment Planning - are members prepared to commit to long term investment plans? Do we have any alternative?

· Public Reactions - are members prepared to help sell the new approach to the public with the potential of longer term efficiency gains against short term inconvenience?

Alan Giles

Head of Highways & Transport Performance 20 June 2007

Glossary

Classified roads Local authority maintained roads with A, B, or C classification. These roads account for some 40% of the local authority road network.

(In the National Road Maintenance Condition Survey report

`classified roads' refers to local authority B and C roads).

Local roads Local authority maintained A, B, C and unclassified roads. These

are also known as non-trunk roads.

Non built-up roads Roads that have a speed limit in excess of 40 mph. These have been referred to as rural roads.

Non-trunk roads Local authority maintained A, B, C and unclassified roads. These

are also known as local roads.

Non-principal roads Local authority maintained B, C and unclassified roads

Principal roads Local authority maintained `A' roads. In general, they carry less

traffic than all purpose trunk roads which are A roads owned and maintained by central government.

Trunk road All purpose main roads (`A' roads) for which the Highways Agency have responsibility for maintenance and operation.

These are strategic roads with a high proportion of long distance

traffic.

Unclassified roads Minor roads which are not designated as classified roads and

which are maintained by a local highway authority. Some 60% of the local authority network is unclassified.