Highways Agency
Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers
What are we going to do?
The Government has changed the way we think about planning roads and other transport. We now need to look at the regional picture, focus on local needs, and consider how we can best knit together roads planning with other transport and planning decisions.
The Highways Agency is using a method called Route Management Strategy, or RMS.
RMS helps us to:
- Spend the available money more effectively.
- Make road planning tie in better with regional transport and planning decisions.
- Make sure you have your say. Local people often know more about local problems and what the solutions might be.
Why are we doing this?
The Highways Agency has a set of strategic plans for the road network. RMS is the system we want to use to take these plans from the drawing board and into reality - roads that better serve people who use them.
But the Highways Agency is just one player in the job of keeping our roads moving. For example, multimodal studies are looking at major transport problems affecting some routes. Route Management Strategies are not about building new roads. They are about making better use of the roads we already have.
We can't do this alone: local councils, regional planning authorities, bus and lorry operators, train companies and the police all have a contribution to make.
That's why each route management strategy has a carefully thought out process to involve as many people as possible -road users, people living nearby and campaign groups.
How will we do it?
Route Management Strategy means we can take a ten year forward look covering the maintenance, operation, and improvement projects for each of the routes that make up the core trunk road network.
It looks at areas such as:
Route Functions and Performance.
What does this road do now?
Route Objectives
What do we want this road to do in the future?
Route Problems
The issues we need to tackle.
Route Management Plan
Our ten-year vision for the road and the improvements we'd like to make.
What happens next?
This is the road we follow to produce each route management strategy. It isn't the whole story, there's plenty more happening behind the scenes. This is why it takes around a year to produce a route management strategy for each of the roads in the core network.
1. Press Announcements
We explain the study and invite comments
2. Seminar
A meeting to explore the problems and ideas
3. Workshop
The best ideas are identified for future action
4. Public Consultation
Road users and local people get their say
5. Publish Strategy
Ten year programme for managing the route
Contact the Highways Agency Information Line on 08457 50 40 30 if you wish to speak to one of our Area Teams about a specific RMS.