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Chapter 3 Effective maintenance
The Agency's top priority
Our top priority is to maintain the network in a safe and serviceable (available for use) condition whilst minimising costs, disruption to road users and others affected by our network, and adverse impact on the environment.
We carry out an extensive programme
of small maintenance schemes.
Maintenance activities on the network include:
- Gritting and salting roads during winter.
- Clearing litter and debris.
- Painting lighting columns and other street furniture.
- Carrying out regular inspections and surveys to identify where work is most needed.
- Resurfacing with lower noise surfacing wherever possible.
Whilst this work is going on we have a duty to minimise its impact on traffic and ensure the safety of our work force. We deliver this by ensuring our contractors apply strict safety standards, through mobile lane closures, and the Road Users' Charter target to keep 97% of lanes free of road works during peak times over the year.
Lower noise surfaces are used wherever possible.
2001-02 performance
In 2001-02 we were set a target by Ministers to maintain the network so that the proportion needing treatment within the following year is held to between 7 and 8%. We met this target in 2001-02 by achieving 7.5%.
Much of our routine maintenance is carried out at night to reduce disruption.
We met the target to upgrade our Pavement Management System (see case study) and made our Structures
Management Information System fully operational. These upgrades will enable us to deliver better and more cost effective management of the network through targeting maintenance where it is most needed on a national basis.
We also exceeded the target in our Road Users' Charter by carrying out 99.6% of our work outside of peak travelling hours6. This helped to keep traffic moving and reduce the impact of our works.
Case study : Highways Agency Pavement Management System (HAPMS)
HAPMS is a national database which stores the current condition of our network's road surfaces and pavements. Its introduction during 2001-02 was a major step forward as it made information on the state of our network available on a national rather than a regional basis. This has enabled us to plan our maintenance activities more strategically and has already made a contribution to our operational efficiency.
6 Peak hours are set for each area and adjust to take account of major events and holiday traffic. [back to 6]
