Highways Agency

MAINTENANCE

Les Hawker

Les Hawker is Group Manager of the Pavement Engineering team which actively supports the development of the Agency's road maintenance programme.

GIVE PRIORITY TO THE MAINTENANCE OF MOTORWAYS, TRUNK ROADS AND BRIDGES WITH THE BROAD OBJECTIVE OF MINIMISING WHOLE LIFE COSTS.

Contractors carrying out drain
cleaning during routine night
maintenance on an elevated section
of the M4.

Night work on a
bridge joint on the M4.

 TRACS vehicle surveying a
 motorway
 to detect cracks in the road
 surface.

THE GOVERNMENT HAS MADE MAINTENANCE OF THE MOTORWAY AND TRUNK ROAD NETWORK OUR TOP PRIORITY AND OVER HALF OF OUR 1999/2000 NET VOTED ALLOCATION OF £1396M (£726M) WENT ON MAINTAINING THE NETWORK IN A SAFE AND SERVICEABLE CONDITION.

With increased funding and a confirmed three-year budget allocation the Agency can look forward to more efficient, long-term partnerships with which to deliver road maintenance.

The Agency achieved all its maintenance targets in 1999/2000 and significantly exceeded the targets for delivering bridge maintenance schemes and road surface renewal, all within available funds.

Maintenance includes a wide range of activities, from major reconstruction and resurfacing of road pavements and repairing bridges, to the everyday upkeep such as clearing litter, servicing emergency telephones, cleaning road signs and salting roads before ice and snow are expected. The guiding principle is that the right maintenance at the right time will deliver a better service to our customers and be more cost-effective. We continue to develop better whole-life cost methods to minimise expenditure over time and reduce disruption to road users.

Wherever possible we carry out maintenance outside peak hours, often in the early hours of the morning. Care is taken to avoid carrying out works during events such as the solar eclipse in the South-west in August 1999, and work is halted during bank holidays if at all possible.

As part of the £3m maintenance project on the M62 near Warrington, overhead gantries were dismantled and removed from the site to be repaired and repainted away from the motorway. This alternative to maintaining the gantries in position proved to be a very cost-effective way of carrying out this vital work while minimising the disruption to users of this busy motorway.

The search for solutions that provide the best value for taxpayers resulted in savings of more than £2 million per year being negotiated for the supply of electricity to light the motorway and trunk road network. The deal with Eastern Electricity is the largest-ever supply contract for un-metered electricity in England. The annual cost of £9.4m for the new deal reduces our electricity costs by 21 per cent, with those savings being used to provide better services elsewhere on the network.

Central to the drive for innovative network management that minimises the impact on users' use of new technology. The Agency awarded a £1m contract to supply a high-speed survey vehicle, able to identify cracks in road surfaces more quickly and cheaply. The TRACS vehicle (Traffic-speed Condition Surveys) can operate at up to 70mph and uses 20 sensors to record the condition of roads. TRACS removes the need to close lanes for essential maintenance inspections and the delays to users that this causes, and is safer for road users and for the staff of the Agency and its contractors.

The Agency consulted widely with the construction industry, local authorities and others about its plans to streamline maintenance procedures and set benchmarks for the performance of contracts. Four options were presented to build on the current two-tier system, involving managing agents and term maintenance contractors, which although successful are still capable of further improvement. 

Case Study

Drivers benefited from the innovative engineering solution adopted for strengthening the A40 bridges over the M5 motorway at the Golden Valley Interchange near Cheltenham.

The simplest option of demolishing the central A40 bridge over the M5 and rebuilding it would have caused widespread disruption to users of both the A40 and M5. Instead, the solution adopted involved strengthening the piers supporting the two bridges over the Golden Valley interchange roundabout and replacing the eight supporting piers under the main bridge with 12 V-shaped columns while traffic continued to use both the A40 above and the M5 below.

The scheme involved lifting the 5,000 tonne central bridge over seven inches in order to install new bearings; re-waterproofing the bridges; laying a new, lightweight road surface; and putting up new safety fencing. The traffic management alone required the use of more than 7,000 traffic cones, 280 road signs and 6,000 temporary road studs. There were lane restrictions and contra-flows with occasional night-time closures, but disruption was far less than if the bridges had been replaced and the project was completed at half the cost to the taxpayer.

A dedicated website was also set-up to keep road users informed and to enable engineers and academics to study progress with the scheme. Heavy goods vehicles can now use the bridges for the first time in over four years.