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ITEM EX9

HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE PROGRAMME 2004/05

1. This report lists the proposed expenditure on highway maintenance activities programmed for 2004/05 from both the capital and revenue budgets.
2. The available revenue budget of £17,600,700 consists of the agreed base revenue budget of £15,149,700 (including inflation at 2%) plus the reinstatement of a £1.7m reduction in the 2003/04 budget and the addition of £751k in funding to meet spending pressures agreed by Council on 10 February 2004.
3. The available capital budget of £11,010,000 is made up of £9.51m of capital funding for structural maintenance from the agreed transport element of the Single Capital Pot for 2004/05 (£23.957m) plus the repayment of 1.5m held back in 2001/02 to support corporate budgets. The capital allocation will remain provisional until final confirmation of the capital programme within this meeting.

Overview of Non-Principal Road Conditions

4. The desperate state of our non-principal roads towards the end of 2000/01 had been significantly improved by the end of 2002/03 by the provision of additional funding, and most locally important roads were in a reasonable condition. In 2003/04 expenditure on larger schemes on these roads was reduced to £0.7m from £4.6m the previous year and their maintenance relied largely on patching and surface dressing treatments. As a result of this reduction in funding, and compounded by the damage caused to parts of the highway network by the extremely dry summer, the condition of non-principal classified roads has significantly deteriorated throughout the year. The BVPI has worsened placing Oxfordshire in the bottom quartile for non-principal classified road condition.
5. The total amount of repairs justified by assessment continues to be very high, roads are still fragile and vulnerable to weather damage, and we are still not repairing minor rural roads and urban estate roads other than doing urgent repairs. The overall maintenance backlog cannot be accurately determined but currently stands at well over £100m with about 90% of this attributable to the non-principal road network. It will take sustained spending to halt and reverse this trend. It is therefore important that 2004/05 funding is targeted at improving the condition of non-principal roads by increasing the Assessed Carriageway Schemes and Surface Dressing budgets. An improvement in BVPI 97a (non-principal classified roads) in particular, will impact on the CPA score for highways.

Principal Roads (‘A’ numbered roads)

6. The priority and investment given to principal road strengthening has improved the condition of these roads to the point that the target set in the Local Transport Plan was met by the end of 2002/03 and the rate of improvement has placed Oxfordshire in the top quartile for principal road condition. With the exception of roads particularly affected by drought damage principal roads are now at what is regarded as an optimum condition level and the aim is to keep condition at this level in the future. The condition prediction model based on surveys of road strength shows that spending in future years will need to increase to keep principal roads at the optimum condition of 6-8% of the road length requiring strengthening at any time, and to meet our other LTP target of reducing the numbers of injury accidents involving skidding on wet roads. A £0.2m increase in this budget allocation will go some way towards restoring the principal road network to a stable condition and maintaining our top quartile place but still leaves funding at a lower level than in 2001/02.

Footway (Pavement) Conditions

7. Due to other pressures the budget for 2004/05 has not been increased but has been kept at the same level in real terms as in the past 3 years with the result that the condition rating at the programme cut off is little changed from that in 2001. A reasonable conclusion based on the evidence and the experience of past years is that the incidence of the very worst footway conditions is being contained, but that there are still large numbers of footways whose condition justifies repair but which do not make the programme. Public pressure is mounting for something to be done to address this.

Oxford City Centre Improvements

8. An amount of £400k of the 2003/04 footway repair budget was allocated to repaving footways in the centre of Oxford as a first step in a commitment to a joint project with Oxford City Council to improve the appearance and cleanliness of the city centre. However, due to the ongoing works in Cornmarket it was decided to postpone the footway repaving works. A similar sum is allocated in the 2004/05 budget and a decision on the allocation of this money to specific schemes will be made following discussion with the City Centre Management Company and the City Council on standards and the roads to be repaired.

Drainage system maintenance

9. The 2003/04 drainage budget was raised to £300k in recognition of the increasing number of local flooding problems and the understandably high level of public concern that this has caused. The budget increase has permitted the completion of 25 drainage schemes. Priority was given to schemes to alleviate the flooding of property and little impression has been made on the long term drainage programme. In order to complete the programme of schemes designed to protect property and return to the long term drainage programme the budget allocation will be held at £300k for 2004/05. In recognition of the recommendations of Scrutiny the gully emptying budget will be increased to permit the more frequent cleaning of locations with persistent problems, but this is still insufficient to return to 2 cleaning cycles a year for most road gullies.

Allocation of the available budget to the programme

10. The use of the available budget has been prioritised to support the County Council’s objective to improve the condition of local roads and pavements while at the same time holding the condition of the principal road network at its present level. The use of the available budget can be summarised as;

• Drought damaged roads – no specific funding has been allocated to deal with this. Affected roads will be assessed for repair along with all other damaged roads.
• Principal roads structural maintenance – increase capital spending closer to the level required to keep them in optimum condition.
• Bridge strengthening – at the same level as last year to provide funds for necessary strengthening of weak bridges and ensure progress towards the targets set out in the Local Transport Plan.
• Non-principal roads assessed programme – increased capital allocation to improve condition of non-principal classified roads.
• Drainage - capital spending maintained at £300k.
• Gully emptying – increased to reflect Scrutiny concerns.
• Surface Dressing - the treatment most roads will still rely on to preserve them for the future – increased from 2003/04 level to help improve non-principal roads.
• Patching – maintained at 2003/04 level.
• Planned footway repairs – maintained at 2003/04 levels.
• Tree maintenance increased by £80k to introduce necessary risk management inspections and arboriculture work identified from these.
• Road condition surveys budget increased by £200k to pay for new TRACS type surveys and information gathering to support BVPIs.

11. Oxford City Council have claimed their right under Section 42 of the Highways Act to maintain the unclassified roads in Oxford. Section 42 requires the City Council to submit by 15 December an estimate of maintenance works costs for the following financial year. The County Council may approve the estimate as submitted or with modifications.
12. The City Council have submitted their estimate as required and this is shown in Column A of Annex 2. The estimate includes the cost of repairs to all defects noted on all of the unclassified roads and is the equivalent within Oxford of the total backlog for the County as a whole. The recommended modified estimate is shown in Column B. The modified estimate carries on the basis of the figures agreed for 2003/04 adjusted by a proportionate share of any generally applicable budget changes. The modified estimates for assessed carriageway and footway schemes are the totals of schemes in Oxford City which have been through the same rating process as all other similar schemes in the county and are included in the programme lists in the Members’ Resource Centre.

Summary Tables

13. A summary of the planned expenditure on all activities on all categories of road is shown in Annex 1 (download as .doc file).
14. Annex 2 is Oxford City Council S.42 estimate and recommended modified estimate as explained above.
15. Annex 3 (download as .doc file) is a summary of the standards of non-assessed maintenance activities and budgets.
16. Lists of the individual schemes included in the programme on the basis of the ratings derived from surveys of each site have been put in the Members’ Resource Centre . Separate lists are given for principal roads, non-principal roads and footway schemes.

RECOMMENDATIONS

17. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to;

1. endorse the details of the 2004/05 Highway Maintenance programme as set out in Annex 1, subject to confirmation of the capital funding for structural maintenance; and
2. approve the Oxford City Council’s Section 42 estimate as modified and shown in Column B of Annex 2.

BRIAN FELL
Assistant Head of Transport: Highway Management

Background papers: Oxford City Council document entitled "Highways Act 1980, Part IV , Section 42; Schedule 7 Estimate of the cost of maintenance of Highways in the City of Oxford 2004/05.

Contact Officer: Brian Fell Tel: Oxford 815083

March 2004

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