Decision details

Highway Maintenance Code of Practice and Highway Asset Management Update

Decision status: For Determination

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Decisions:

The Director of Environment and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report advising the Committee of the progress of the implementation of the ‘Well Managed Highway Infrastructure: A Code of Practice’, and also to report on progress of the Highway Asset Management programme.

The report explained that in October 2016 the UK Roads Liaison Group had released Well-managed Highway Infrastructure: A Code of Practice, which set out 36 recommendations for the implementation of Highway Asset Management.  Local Authorities had been given two years (from the date of publishing) to adopt the new Code of Practice.  One of the most significant changes in the Code of Practice was that Local Authorities had to have a risk based approach to their highway maintenance regimes rather than there being defined standards.  It was therefore for each Local Authority to decide their own levels of maintenance and inspection regimes based on what they considered to be acceptable levels of risk.

The report stated that full implementation of all 36 recommendations within 2 years was unrealistic given the resources the Council had available.  Therefore, the Council, following advice from the insurance industry, had been concentrating on key recommendations that had been advised should be prioritised to ensure highway safety compliance.  These prioritised recommendations were:

1.    Consistency with other Authorities (recommendation 5)

2.    Risked based approach (recommendation 7)

3.    Competencies and training (recommendation 15)

The report explained that in May 2017 Reading Borough Council’s Highway Asset Management Policy   had been published following Committee approval.  The Policy confirmed the Council’s commitment to Highway Asset Management and        outlined how assessment would be managed and how progress would be reported, including the establishment of a Highway Asset Management Board (HAM Board).  The Council had produced a draft updated Highway Maintenance Manual, (HMM), which would be in line with the ‘Well-managed Highway Infrastructure: A Code of Practice’.  This policy document would be presented to the HAM Board and brought back to the Committee for formal approval.

 

The report stated that the Highway Asset Management Team would continue to update the Highway Maintenance Manual (HMM) and incorporate the full 36 recommendations on a priority basis and would report progress to the HAM Board on a quarterly basis and the Committee on an annual basis.

 

The report set out the Council’s current highway safety inspection frequency regime, which was as follows:

 

Road Type

 

Current Frequency

Category A

 

3 Monthly

Categories B & C

 

6 Monthly

Category U

 

Every 18 Months

 

The report stated that there was a proposal to set a tolerance for completing the above inspections to allow some flexibility when inspections could not be carried out due to illness or leave.  The following tolerances to inspection times were proposed:

 

Carriageway: Routine Inspection Frequencies

 

Carriageway Hierarchy

Inspection Frequency

Inspection Method

Tolerance #

Strategic Route

3 Monthly

Walked

1 Week

Main Distributor

3 Monthly

Walked*

1 Week

Secondary Distributor

6 Monthly

Walked

2 Week

Link Road

18 Months

Walked**

1 Month

Local Access Road

18 Months

Walked

1 Month

 

* With the exception of the Inner Distribution Road between Great Knollys Street and London Street which was driven because the road is subject to a 40mph speed limit and there was no safe walking route on this section.

**With the exception of Burghfield Road between Underwood Road and the Borough Boundary which was driven because the road had no footways, visibility was restricted due to a hump back railway bridge and high level of goods vehicles.

# Where an inspection was carried out late but within the tolerance the next inspection shall still be carried out within the frequency interval of the original planned inspection date.

Resolved –

(1)        That the progress made on the ‘Well Managed Highway Infrastructure: A Code of Practice’ be noted;

(2)        That the progress of the Highway Asset Management programme be noted;

(3)        That the clarification of the tolerance for the highway safety inspection regime frequency be approved.

Publication date: 18/03/2019

Date of decision: 21/11/2018

Decided at meeting: 21/11/2018 - Strategic Environment, Planning and Transport Committee

Accompanying Documents: