Highways Agency

• Traffic Incident Management Bulletin

March 2007

The severe weather experienced on Thursday 18th January 2007, resulted in many incidents occurring on the Highways Agency’s network. The incidents were not restricted to certain areas of the country but were experienced far and wide and to varying levels of seriousness. As a result there was a major impact on the whole of the Highways Agency’s network.

The disruption caused by weather related incidents on the 18th January caused an estimated £50m of delay.  Despite this, the Agency and its supply chain coped well in very challenging circumstances.  Following the event both Archie Robertson and Derek Turner have thanked Agency and supply chain staff for their efforts in restoring traffic flows on the network.

The debriefs that have taken place have identified some proactive actions that played significant role in minimising the disruption on the Network.  These included members of the Area Performance Teams working within the regional control centres to provide an additional communication link between the Traffic Officer Service and the supply chain.  In the North of England parts of the network was closed to Large Goods vehicles, and one Police Force parked the LGV’s side by side on the motorway so that their was less chance of them blowing over.

Significant demand was placed on the Highways Agency’s Information Line (HAIL) with up to 150 calls an hour being answered.  HAIL had 15 operators fully occupied speaking to customers for most of the day.  The Agency’s press office issued notices specifically targeting drivers of high sided vehicles advising them to stop using the network until the winds had passed.  Regional HA press officers were utilised in different roles around the country to gather information and liaise with local media.

The weather resulted in disruption to some of the Agency’s equipment including electronic signs, signals, and CCTV systems. Works are underway to improve the resilience of this equipment as part of a battery replacement programme.  Some of the desk top tools such as Traffic England and Traffic map used by the Agency’s control rooms also became inoperable during the day.

Following the events of the 18th January, the Agency is working with the Freight Transport Association and Road Haulage Association to identify ways to influence LGV drivers to reduce the amount of incidents caused by adverse weather.  The Agency are also commencing a piece of work to interrogate historical weather and incident data to enable the likely consequences of adverse weather on the network to be predicted when the MET Office issues weather warnings.  This will enable the Agency to communicate more effectively with customers, make best use of resources and develop operational plans. 

On the 18th January the Highways Agencies National Crisis Management Plan was not mobilised. Some of the support functions that the plan uses could have been implemented in the morning and this would have improved communication channels with regional commanders and subsequently better communication throughout the day. This matter is being considered by TIM and the Network Resilience Team.

During the 18th January, the Traffic Officer Service, the supply and other responders coped well with the effects of extreme weather conditions that required them to work in challenging conditions.  Through the utilisation of the debrief process the Highways Agency has captured key information that will enable them to further develop and improve procedures associated to incident management. Through this improvement loop it is hoped that the Highways Agency will be even better prepared to manage events during similar conditions in the future.