Made possible by reallocated HS2 funding
Maintaining Roads - Innovation
The Prime Minister’s Network North announcement on 4 October 2023 included a commitment to an additional £8.3 billion for local highway maintenance from 2023/24 -2033/34.
At the end of November 2023, Plymouth City Council received an additional £366,000 of Capital funding to be allocated within the 2023/24 financial year from the Road Resurfacing Fund for local highways maintenance, an additional £366,000 has been allocated for the 2024/25 financial year.
We have profiled this funding for innovative Highway Treatment of carriageways, cycleways, and footways to treat and help prevent potholes and other road defects. In addition we are looking to improve lining and junction approach for safety considerations.
Innovation is key to successful delivery of our highway asset maintenance programme. We constantly monitor available and emerging techniques and technologies within the market sector. LCRIG (Local Council Roads Innovation Group) is a valued partner in our journey to drive constant improvement. Versatility, ‘Value for Money’ and the ‘Best Practice’ all being of paramount importance for us to achieve.
The adoption of Spray Injection Patching has seen over 10,000 Highway surface defects being repaired in financial year 2023/24. With this support (from DfT by the re-allocation of HS2 funds) we intend to further benefit the residents of Plymouth by continuing roll out of this technology. In addition, Re-texturing, Scabbling and/or Surface Treatments are being applied to key junctions in the City of Plymouth.
| Challenge | Response |
|---|---|
| Additional resurfacing and other work scheduled in 2024/25 using the additional funding and the total volumes of additional work to be completed by March 2025 with particular roads, communities, or locations that are due to benefit | Please see attached Excel spreadsheet. The £366k for 2023/24 financial year rolled to 2024/25 financial year.The £366k allocated for 2024/25 will be added to the above for use in 2024/25 |
| Further additional work that will be completed during 2024/25 – setting out both expected total volumes of additional work and where it is planned; | Please see attached Excel spreadsheet. The £366k for 2023/24 financial year has been rolled and will be used in the 2024/25 financial year.The £366k allocated for 2024/25 will be added to the above for use in 2024/25 These works will be programmed to take place in 2024/25 to be completed by 31/03/2025. |
| How Plymouth City Council is introducing innovation in the delivery of highways maintenance (e.g. the use of new equipment or software) and where it plans to go further; | Plymouth City Council is a proud member of LCRIG (The Local Council Roads Innovation Group) and have attended various seminars and presentations on innovation and innovative products and have adopted various processes following from trials by industry. We are also aware of the IPS (Innovation Procurement System), a platform set up by LCRIG in collaboration with CCS (Crown Commercial Service) to buy innovative products and services. Supported by the Department for Transport (DfT), the LCRIG IPS is designed to remove barriers to innovation and provide a flexible and fully compliant procurement route for Local Authorities. We are exploring this innitiative We have already used Velocity spray injection patching machines in 2023/24 and with the additional DfT funding we are now able to extend the delivery 2024/25. The continued use of this service would not have been possible without this additional DfT funding. We are addressing a number of key Junctions where skid resistance is of critical importance and are delivering a programme of treatments using retexturing systems to maintain standards and further improve skid resistance at these sites, reducing the cost of intervention whilst still improving the safety of the surfaces. |
| How Plymouth City Council is using its streetworks and other powers to ensure that resurfacing works are not undermined by repeated digging up of the same road by utility companies; and | Where we undertake any major highway resurfacing schemes we issue Section 58 notices for them with at least 3 months’ notice so that Utility Companies can comment and undertake any works required prior to the commencement of the 3 year embargo period. This prevents any works other than emergency or new connections being completed on newly resurfaced assets. Our Network Management Team meets on a regular basis with all local stakeholders, including travel companies, Utility Companies etc. to highlight upcoming works and to consider a collaborative approach to reducing repeat visits to the same sites. Our Network Management Team also run the Plymouth City Council Permit Scheme, this enables the team to coordinate works prior to approving permits. As per the DfT remit, the Council use Street Manager to aid in the coordination of works. All planned works appear on the one.network platform, that shows current and planned roadworks, public events and traffic management interventions on the UK's highways. |
| State the total amount of investment in the maintenance of local highway networks for the most recent 5 years (ie for the years 2019/20; 2020/21; 2021/22; 2022/23; and 2023/24) and planned investment for 24/25. | Total spend by year for the last 5 years and planned spend for next year as per below: |
| Areas / roads where work is planned | Type of works being undertaken on asset group (eg: road resurfacing, bridge repair, culverts maintenance, cycleways, footways etc) | Indicative cost | Surface area resurfaced (if applicable) m2 | Benefits from it (eg: improved journey times etc |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various residential roads in Plymouth | pothole repairs using spray injection patching machine(s) on various carriageways in residential streets around Plymouth. This system is to make a permanent repair on all potential road defects, whether they meet our investigatory levels or not, but mainly on a find and fix basis where defects would otherwise not be repaired. | £250k | Based on 2023/24 numbers and areas achieved we would expect the process in 2024/25 to achieve approximately 160 streets, 2,800 repairs containing approximately 6,275 potential and emerging defects and a total area of around 1,500 m² | improved perception of the Council dealing with poholes and improved road surfaces in our residential areas where they would otherwise largely not have been treated. Also less emerging new carriageway defects over future years helping to reduce the ongoing liability of repairs. |
| Skid resistance sites where skid resitance has been tested and found to be at our high priority intervention levels | Retexturing where surface is otherwise in serviceable condition and suitable for retexturing to improve the inherant skid resistance of the road surface | £25k | 4,914 m² | Improved skid resistance at 7 key sites around the City providing an improved level of safety for all road and highways users |
| Skid resistance sites where skid resitance has been tested and found to be at our high priority intervention levels | Additional works to the above retexturing sites including lining | £25k | Improved visibility of lining providing an improved level of safety for all road and highway users | |
| Skid resistance sites where skid resitance has been tested and found to be at our high priority intervention levels | A mixture of resurfacing works, renewal of HFS surfacing and relining/additional lining works | £490k | Approximately 10,000 - 12,000 m² | Improved skid resistance and visibility of lining at further key sites around the City providing an improved level of safety for all road and highways users |
