1 - Introduction to the Highways Maintenance Handbook

Chapter 1 of the Highways Maintenance Handbook

1.1 - Background

The highway network is the most valuable asset that the County Council manages and maintains. It is the key to achieving nearly all of the County Council's business objectives, providing the means by which children get to school, the elderly receive home help, waste is transported and County Council staff deliver services around the county. The highway network provides the basic underpinning transport foundations of modern society.

Travel is an integral part of the local economy in relation to both tourism and supporting economic development. The highway network is equally important to users from other parts of the country, unfortunately this importance is often only highlighted when parts of the network become unavailable and travel becomes difficult.

To keep the network functioning at as high a level as possible and preserve the asset value, maintenance must be carried out to the various highway components. These include footways, carriageways, drainage systems, verges, structures, street lighting, traffic signals, signing and road markings to name a few. Gloucestershire County Council and its Agents, Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council, directly maintain 5164 kilometres of county roads with a further 259 kilometres of Motorways and Trunk Roads being maintained by the Highways Agency.

1.2 - Vision Statement

Gloucestershire County Council, together with its partners within the Gloucestershire Highways Partnership, has adopted a simple and clear vision statement for all maintenance work on highways:

"To improve value for stakeholders in Gloucestershire Highways."

Achieving this vision of improving value for all stakeholders requires all parties:

"To deliver a highly efficient, cost-effective and top quality highway maintenance service to the people of Gloucestershire."

These two statements provide the basis for everything that is done within the Gloucestershire Highways Partnership and elsewhere, to provide a continuously improving and cost-efficient highway maintenance service to the local community.

1.3 - Aims and Objectives

1.3.1 - Role of the Highway Maintenance Handbook

With ever increasing demands being made on the highway network, it is important that consistent and effective management techniques are employed. These techniques ensure the safe and convenient movement of the travelling public whilst preserving and often enhancing the environment. Managing the highway network to provide best value for the people of Gloucestershire is paramount to achieving the overall aims of the County Council, reflected in the Council's Corporate Plan. This Highway Maintenance Handbook draws together the various objectives and policies associated with the maintenance of the highway network, in particular the Government's 10 year Plan for Transport, Delivering Best Value in Highway Maintenance: Code of Practice for Maintenance Management (known as the 'Code of Practice'), the Local Transport Plan 2001-2006 and the Highway Maintenance Best Value Action Plan (July 2002).

A further factor to be considered will be the proposed Regional Planning Guidance for the South West document. Currently in its draft stage the expected points of impact of this document are highlighted in Appendix 1

On a more detailed level the Government, in March 2000, published the first national road safety strategy "Tomorrow's Roads: Safer for Everyone". This strategy introduced a new set of national casualty reduction targets for the period up to 2010.

Gloucestershire County Council produces a Road Safety Plan that is reviewed and updated annually and includes targets that reflect those in the national strategy. Highway maintenance can have a marked effect on road safety and strong links are required between the two disciplines.

This Handbook also covers the current proposals for de-trunking parts of the national strategic network and transferring these lengths of road to County Council management.
The County Council has set out in this handbook its standards of service regarding the highway network. It is a dynamic document that will be reviewed annually to match national and local policies and to best meet the needs of highway users.

1.3.2 - The Core Principles of the Highway Maintenance Handbook

Gloucestershire County Council adopts the three core principles of the 'Code of Practice' for all elements of Highway Maintenance and Management:

(i) - Safety - the need to comply with statutory obligations and meet users' needs;
Serviceability - the need to ensure availability, integrity and reliability whilst enhancing quality;
(ii) - Sustainability - the need to maximise the value of the network to the community and minimising the costs of ownership over time.

1.3.3 - The Strategic Aims of the Highway Maintenance Handbook

The strategic aims of the Handbook are to:

(i) - Provide the most efficient, cost effective and high quality highway maintenance service possible in order to maintain the asset value of the highway network
(ii) - Minimise the impact of maintenance upon the public, the environment and sites of cultural and historic value
(iii) - Improve safety throughout the highway network
(iv) - Promote highway management measures within a structured programme of work for both urban and rural areas
(v) - Promote environmental enhancement and ensure the retention of the distinctive character of local settlements
(vi) - Promote highway measures that will maximise the operational efficiency of the highway network.

1.3.4 - The Objectives of the Highway Maintenance Handbook

The objectives of the Handbook are to:

(i) - Improve safety for all users
(ii) - Undertake maintenance work on roads and bridges that will ensure the best use of existing infrastructure
(iii) - Facilitate integration of all modes of transport
(iv) - Minimise whole life costs and maximise the use of high durability materials
(v) - Undertake preventative maintenance work - particularly in respect of accident sites and areas of low skidding resistance
(vi) - Work in partnership with road users, transport providers, operators, other local authorities, utility companies and the Highways Agency to improve the performance of the highway network
(vii) - Minimise the impact of maintenance and utility works on the public and the natural and built environment by management of activities on the network
(viii) - Increase the proportion of recycled and secondary materials used for maintenance works
(ix) - Reduce the number of street lighting columns that require urgent replacement and to reduce the number of lights not working
(x) - Reduce the number of bridges and retaining walls that require strengthening
(xi) - Ensure continuity of service in the event of adverse weather or other emergencies
(xii) - Undertake a regular review of policies, standards and strategies for highway maintenance to ensure best value and continuous improvement.

1.4 - Publication, Adoption and Incorporation of Policy and Strategy

This Highway Maintenance Handbook has been formally adopted by Gloucestershire County Council as part of its formal adoption of the Code of Practice. The handbook is a local commitment to policies and standards based on both national and local codes and plans.

The Highway Maintenance Handbook refers to many other related documents. Where appropriate extracts have been reprinted within the handbook and its appendices - in other cases hyperlinks have been included to documents held on Gloucestershire County Council website or other websites.

go back to Foreword or go on to 2 - Statutory Duties and other maintenance considerations