Agenda item

Report of the Elections and Members’ Services Officer.

Kendra Hourd, District Manager – Rushcliffe, Gedling and Mansfield and Paula Johnson, Senior Officer for Gedling, Notts. County Council gave an overview of the Highway Maintenance Strategy 2016/16 – 2020/21.  The following points were highlighted:

·         Historically Nottinghamshire followed a ‘ worst first ‘ short term approach to highways maintenance , with an element of preventative maintenance through surface dressing

·         Roads in the worst condition are identified through technical surveys, local engineering knowledge and political input are used to develop a one year programme for resurfacing and reconstruction

·         Nationally years of under investment, an increase in climate impact and a largely ‘worst first’ strategy alongside the importance of maintaining a road network in a safe and serviceable condition has led to a maintenance backlog of approximately £319million in Nottinghamshire (2014) figures.  The annual funding for highway maintenance is £14 million.

·         The Department for Work and Transport set out the asset management principle   for all highways authorities with greater use of preventative treatments such as surface dressing/overlay methods and less emphasis on ‘worst first’ full resurfacing

·         All highways authorities must demonstrate compliance with this implementing a strategy over 6 years and the DfT will rank the efforts at 3 levels.  Over the 6 years if a highways authority meets the top level every year they will not lose any funding.  If an authority ranks lower it will keep losing advancing amounts of funding over the 6 years ending at receiving nothing in the final year for the lowest ranking.  NCC anticipates it will achieve either the middle level or top level in the first year.

·         Road maintenance funding will be split 3 ways between A roads B/C roads and unclassified roads.  The Pothole Challenge Fund is not included in this and is spent on larger patching areas or pot holes only.

·         The new approach assumes that 20% of the unclassified network and nearly 10% of the classified network will remain in need of repair.  The backlog of work will only reduce very gradually and may even increase if funding levels are reduced or remain the same.  It is hoped that preventative measures will reduce demands on the ‘worst first’ programme over time.

·         Horizons is the maintenance data base which holds engineering data on road conditions. It is made up of scanner survey data, SCRIM survey data; these are both automated road condition survey machines, and visual surveys.  This provides a draft programme of works which is put forward to full council for approval.

·         Roads are chosen for repair using ‘deterioration modelling’ which predicts the relative condition of the highways network over the coming years and helps decide where resources should be channelled at the optimum time to treat roads in the most cost effective way.

·         A large proportion of pothole repairs are undertaken with proprietary hand –laid material that is specifically designed for the purpose and sets in water as necessary. Pot hole repairs are cost much less than resurfacing treatments and repeated patching in this manner does not amount to anywhere near the funding needed to resurface.

Following questions from Members the following issues were addressed:

·           The material commissioned for the repair of pot holes was chosen after an 18 month trial which considered both efficacy and price.  When repairing the material can be left proud to allow for flattening over time.

·           Pot hole repairs cost approximately £30-40, resurfacing a road is much more expensive.

·           The condition of A, B and C roads are satisfactory in Gedling, local roads are not so good.

·           When considering roads to be included in the repair programme traffic flow, recreational use including walking, cycling are taken into account.

·           Use of the reporting system is effective.  Members were reminded that if they want to raise individual issues they can call the County Council Customer Contact Centre on 0300 500 8080 or register the details themselves online at :

http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/transport/roads/report-road-problem

         RESOLVED:

            I.        Note the information presented.

           II.        To thank the officers for attending the meeting.