What's going on with the Plane and Patch programme?

Ask the Contract Director!

We understand that as members of the public, you probably have a lot of burning questions regarding the roads around Buckinghamshire. Well, we’re giving you the opportunity to get your questions answered by Transport for Buckinghamshire's Contract Director!

This is the 7th blog post that we have produced focusing on the questions that you have been asking, this week we are looking at:

What’s going on with the Plane and Patch programme?

This year’s Plane and Patch programme commenced on 4^th March 2019 and, continuing until September, will cover over 150 separate locations around Buckinghamshire.

As the work goes on, we have been sharing ‘before and after’ pictures of each road undergoing Plane and Patch treatment on our social media channels. Some of the locations that we have shared so far have been roads in more residential areas, and we have been asked why that is.

TfB takes a balanced approach to prioritising which roads to repair, a strategy that we believe provides the best mix of preventative and replacement work across all roads in the County. The majority of the annual capital budget is targeted at ensuring our main roads remain in good condition, with most larger resurfacing and surface treatment schemes taking place on more strategically important roads. 

However, it is very important that we do not allow our main roads to take up our entire budget because many of our more minor roads, which are still important routes for locals, are in poor condition. For this reason, we make sure that some of the budget is spent on all classes of roads.  Plane and Patch work is particularly effective on minor roads, compared to main roads.

The Plane and Patch programme therefore primarily targets these more minor routes and is largely driven and determined by our Local Area Technicians (LAT’s) and Members, who, between them, have a broad knowledge of the roads within their area, particularly those that will benefit most from Plane and Patch treatment.

Do you want to read more about our approach to highways asset management?  See here for more details. 

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Why haven't you turned this light back on? - Ask the Contract Director #6

Ask the Contract Director!

We understand that as members of the public, you probably have a lot of burning questions regarding the roads around Buckinghamshire. Well, we’re giving you the opportunity to get your questions answered by Transport for Buckinghamshire’s Contract Director!

In each blog post in this exciting new series, we will be focusing on a different frequently asked question. This week, we’re answering:

Why haven’t you turned this light back on?

Transport for Buckinghamshire looks after over 29,000 streetlights and 6,000 illuminated bollards. Across the county, we rely on thousands of street lights to illuminate the local paths and footways for us when we are out and about.

LED Replacement Programme

Over the course of 2018/19, the Street Lighting Team has been replacing 3,295 of the ‘old style’ lanterns with LED equipment. These old style lanterns cast an orange light, whilst the new lanterns produce a brighter, white light. Approximately 3,000 of these lanterns have been converted and it is expected that this programme will be complete by the end of March 2019.

However a small amount of the old style lanterns will remain for a number of reasons, whilst remedial actions are taken, including a need for the entire column to be changed or the column base being surrounded by privately owned land.

In addition to this, the team has also completely replaced 344 lanterns which were mounted on electricity poles.

Night Scouting

Whilst you can report street lights that are damaged or broken on ‘Fix My Street’, TfB also has a Night Scouting programme. Members of the Street Lighting team check for outages along the strategic routes across the county, making note of lights that need any work doing to them. Six routes are covered over a three month period, and the scouting occurs on a quarterly basis.

However, if you do spot a damaged or broken street light, please do report it using ‘Fix My Street’ (https://www.fixmystreet.buckscc.gov.uk/). Use the search bar to find the road the street light is on, use the marker to pinpoint the area it is in and select the number of the street light that you are reporting. This should be used for faults that do not present an immediate risk, for example, street lights that aren’t working. In an emergency, please call 01296 382416 to report.

Solar powered bollards

Transport for Buckinghamshire’s Street Lighting Team has been working with their manufacturing partners, NAL Ltd and Traffic Management Products (TMP), to begin implementing a new and innovative bollard solution across the county, installing over 100 bollards to date. These new bollards are solar powered and have a number of benefits, including reduced energy costs and no need to connect to underground cables, meaning no issues can be caused by power outages or damaged cables.

Another advantage of these new bollards is that they are also easier to repair – the solar powered bollards use socket mounted equipment. Currently, if a bollard is damaged or broken, it can be complicated to repair or replace them as there is a need for traffic management, or in some cases, road closures. However, if one of the new style bollards is damaged or needs replacing, the equipment can be changed quickly and easily and removes the possibility of live wires being exposed in the event of a road traffic collision.

Sometimes the problem lies with the electricity supplier

Sometimes members of the public report failed lights to us that have stopped working due to an underground electrical supply fault. If this is the case, TfB are not able to repair the fault, because the cables are owned and maintained by the electricity companies for the area. Only they are allowed to carry out repairs to their networks.

TfB works closely with the three electricity companies who have equipment within the county to resolve these issues as and when they’re discovered, but the repairs can take some time and be complex in nature. This is usually why, sometimes, a street light you have reported as being out may be out for some time.

Remember…

Street lights are for lighting public highway and footpaths. Please do not report street lights that are not lighting up privately owned land, for example, gardens and driveways.

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How do you decide which potholes to repair? - Ask the Contract Director #5

Ask the Contract Director!

We understand that as members of the public, you probably have a lot of burning questions regarding the roads around Buckinghamshire. Well, we’re giving you the opportunity to get your questions answered by Transport for Buckinghamshire’s Contract Director!

In each blog post in this exciting new series, we will be focusing on a different frequently asked question. This week, we’re answering:

How do you decide which potholes to repair?

Buckinghamshire County Council’s 3,200km highway infrastructure is its most valuable asset, valued at £4.2 billion. It provides a vital transportation network for both businesses and private users.

Under our Routine Maintenance Service Principle, Transport for Buckinghamshire (TfB) is to maintain the highway infrastructure in a safe and serviceable condition for its users, whether driving, walking or cycling. In order to identify any defects on the highway, regular inspections are carried out by TfB Highways Inspectors and Local Area Technicians (LATs).

Carrying out inspections

Highway Safety Inspections are supplemented by other inspections and assessments carried out in line with national standards and/or good practice, including but not limited to:

•         Inspections undertaken in response to specific matters identified through correspondence (e.g. Fix My Street reports)
•         Specialist inspections of certain assets within the highway boundary (e.g. street lighting and structures)
•        Technical assessments of carriageway condition, generally undertaken using machine based equipment
•         Streetworks Inspections

The frequency for safety inspections of individual roads is based upon the Carriageway Maintenance Hierarchy adopted by Buckinghamshire County Council, which considers:

• Road Category: Strategic roads, main distributer and secondary distributor roads are inspected on a monthly basis whereas local link-roads are inspected on a quarterly basis and local access roads are inspected annually.
• Traffic use, characteristics and trends
• Characteristics of adjoining roads
• Wider policy or operational considerations

Although the road category within the hierarchy, in combination with traffic use, will determine the inspection frequency, site specific factors may contribute to a decision to temporarily or permanently increase or reduce the frequency of the inspection of a specific location. Factors that may contribute to this kind of decision may include accident rates and unusually high defect levels.

Identifying a defect

Like many authorities, TfB used to repair potholes based on their ‘size’. A large pothole with jagged edges would be repaired more quickly than a small one, regardless of its location. However, we now follow a risk-based approach when it comes to repairs, meaning that we take in to consideration:

• The risk posed to the public
• The extent, depth and surface area
• The volume and speed of traffic of the road the defect is on
• The location, such as junctions and bends
• Forecast weather conditions

Applying this risk based approach is beneficial to road users, as it means that we are able to target our resources to higher risk defects. Lower risk defects can be fitted in to repair programmes that allow us to operate far more efficiently.

Defect Categorisation

TfB’s Safety Inspection Policy defines defects in three categories:

Emergency (Category E) – Those that require prompt attention because they represent an immediate hazard.

Emergency defects will be permanently repaired or made safe at the time of the inspection, if possible. Making the defect safe may constitute displaying warning notices, coning or fencing off to protect the public from the defect or other suitable actions. If the inspection team are unable to effect a “make safe” then we do have repair teams available to attend within the 2hr time frame.

Category E defects will be permanently repaired within 28 working days if a permanent repair was not possible upon the first visit.

Category 1 – Those that require priority attention because they represent a potential risk to road users or reduce the reliability of the highway.

Category 1 defects will also be permanently repaired or made safe at the time of the inspection, if possible. If it is not possible to repair or make safe at the time of the inspection then an appropriate repair will be carried out within two working days of the identification of the defect and a permanent repair made within 28 working days.

Category 2 – All other defects.

Category 2 defects are those which are deemed not to present an immediate hazard and which can be repaired within longer timescales – they are either programmed for repair within 28 calendar days or included in a forward works programme. Category 2 defects are categorised according to priority:

•         High (Cat 2H)
•         Medium (Cat 2M)
•         Low (Cat 2L)

Inspectors are able to determine which sub-category the defect falls into by using their Safety Inspection Guidance Manual which provides examples of defects that may be encountered on the network and their potential categorisation. However, our on-site assessment will always need to take account of other particular circumstances. The inspector will also take into consideration the likelihood of further deterioration before the next scheduled inspection, and where this is a high probability, a higher classification may be determined.

Minimum Investigatory Levels

It is recognised that on any highway network a multitude of minor defects will exist which do not pose any risk to either the safety or the reliability of the highway. As a result, it would be impractical and inefficient to use limited financial resources to undertake repairs. These types of defects are described as ‘not meeting the Minimum Investigatory Levels’, which for potholes is defined as 40mm or under in depth and less than 300mm across in any direction.

Any defects that do not meet the Minimum Investigatory Levels will be recorded if the inspector deems this appropriate (for example, where a cluster of such defects may form a potential preventative maintenance scheme in the future).  These kinds of defects will be recorded as Category 2L defects.

To find a more detailed copy of our Defect Risk Assessment, visit the web page here. 

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