Minutes of the 40 th meeting of the UK Roads Board meeting held at the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation on the 19 June 2012 Present: Andrew Murray Andy Best David Davies Douglas Hill Marcus Lloyd Richard Morgan Donald Morrison Anthony Radford-Foley Amanda Richards Ramesh Sinhal Steve Spender Justin Ward Roads Service Northern Ireland (Chairman) Transport for London NWSRG, Lincolnshire County Council SCOTS, Angus Council Caerphilly County Borough Council, CSS Wales Welsh Assembly Government Transport Scotland Bracknell Forest Council, representing TAG Interim Road Condition Steering Group, Surrey County Councy Highways Agency Footways and Cycleways Management Group CIHT (Secretariat) In attendance: Gavin Cooper (Highways Agency) for item 4 Tony Jackson (Network Rail) for all of the meeting 1. Introduction Andrew Murray welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked Richard Morgan for hosting the event. Apologies were recorded for Steve Berry, Paul Hersey, Garry Warner and Lester Willmington 2. Note of last meeting The record of the last meeting was agreed to be an accurate record. Matters arising Boundary issue Ramesh confirmed that he had sent a comprehensive note on the issue to Andrew Jones. Donald Morrison said he had provided details to Ramesh on the approach undertaken to resolve boundary issues in Scotland and Ramesh said that once he had reviewed the document from Donald, he would pass it onto Andrew Jones. DfT statistics Justin said that Steve Berry had informed him that Hiten Shah and Michael Williams will sit in the new Interim Road Condition Steering Group.
Action: Justin Ward to pass on DfT statistics contact details to Amanda Richards [completed 25 June 2012] Action: Justin Ward to check with Lester Willmington on the current situation with the ADEPT submission on maintenance Action: Justin Ward to send relevant extracts of Winter Resilience in transport to David Davies [completed] Action: David Davies to discuss with Andrew Murray the resources required to complete the UK Roads Board actions outlined in the Winter Resilience in transport report The Board discussed the NWSRG document: Treatments for Extreme Cold and agreed that the document was supported by the UK Roads Board. All the other matters arising were completed. 3. Update from the UK Roads Liaison Group (UKRLG) Andrew Murray said that he had highlighted the financial issues of the UK Roads Board sub-groups at the UKRLG meeting. The Board discussed collaborative research. Action: Ramesh Sinhal to send the Highways Agency programme of research (including current and potential) to UKRB members Action: Justin Ward to arrange conference call with Ramesh Sinhal, Andrew Murray and Donald Morrison on research coordination and dissemination Action: Richard Morgan to circulate report on thin surfacing failures [completed 25 June 2012] There was some discussion about the constitutional issues of the Interim Road Condition Steering Group. 4. Pavements Category Management Framework Ramesh provided a background to the presentation, outlining that the Highways Agency was focused on sharing expertise on contracting arrangements. Gavin Cooper presented on the framework saying that the focus was on aggregating buying power and leverage across key areas of spend. Gavin said there was a real opportunity for local highway authorities to benefit from using the framework. Following the presentation there was a discussion including questions on how the HA framework linked with other collaborative procurement programmes (OGC, Midlands Highway Alliance, etc) and also about how the HA framework supported small to medium size (SME) businesses.
Action: Tony Jackson to contact Gavin Cooper for sharing ideas/information between Network Rail and the Highways Agency Action: Justin Ward to put a copy of the presentation by Gavin Cooper on the Highways Agency Pavements Category Management Framework in the UKRLG members area [completed] Action: Andrew Murray to raise the issue over which Board takes a lead on procurement issues at the next UKRLG meeting 5. Feedback from UK Roads Board sub-groups a. Asset Management Justin said that Lester Willmington had not sent a report as the Asset Management meeting cycle was out-of-sync with the UKRB June meeting. b. Footways and Cycleways Management Group Steve Spender said that a key piece of work was now completed (and included with the meeting papers) on cycle track maintenance. Steve also said the Footways Network Survey (FNS) was discussed at the HAMFIG meeting last week. The conclusion from that meeting was that HAMFIG would support any survey that helps local authorities with financial calculations and FNS did this. Action: Andrew Murray to approve draft letter on FNS and arrange for distribution of this letter to Local Authorities Steve highlighted some funding concerns from the group (see item 10). Steve then drew members attention to the cycle track maintenance report and following a discussion the Board agreed: Action: UKRB members to provide comments to Steve Spender on the cycle track maintenance report by the end of August and Steve Spender to account for any relevant recommendations from the Potholes Review c. National Winter Service Research Group (NWSRG) David Davis confirmed that most issues between the NWSRG document and Wellmaintained Highways (WMH) would be easily resolvable. The Board agreed that there was a timing issue for publishing any update to winter guidance and said that any advice should not be issued during the winter season. The Board discussed a paper from Atkins that outlined a background to the situation and presented four options. The Board agreed to option c): Amalgamate Appendix H and the Practical Guide into a new Appendix to WmH Justin Ward said that Steve Berry had raised the issue of the difference in the spread rate tables and the Board agreed that the 12 tables contained within the NWSRG guide should replace the current two tables in (current) Appendix H of WMH.
Justin Ward asked for clarification of the scope of the NWSRG practical guide to winter and David said that the guide would include all the NWSRG documents (including Spread Rates, Salt Storage, Spreader Calibration, Treatments for Snow and Ice, and Extreme Weather). Action: UK Roads Board to Amalgamate Appendix H and the Practical Guide into a new Appendix to WmH Action: UK Roads Board to ensure new Appendix to WmH contains the 12 tables contained within the Practical Guide Action: Steve Berry to arrange a meeting between David Davis and Atkins to agree the process for reviewing the inconsistencies and to amalgamate Appendix H and the Practical Guide into a new Appendix to WmH d. Interim road condition steering group Amanda said that she had been asked to Chair the group in April 2012. Amanda said that there had not been a large appetite for local authorities to be involved. Andrew Murray confirmed that Roddy Crilly would represent Northern Irleand on the group. Action: David Davies to send NWSRG constitution to Amanda Richards Action: Amanda Richards to develop a formal proposal to UKRB on the Terms of Reference for the group (including membership and voting rights). Action: Douglas Hill to identify a representative from SCOTS for the group 6. Potholes Review Although the Board recorded their support for the Potholes Review (stating that the outputs were very good) they did note that HMEP should recognise the importance of the UK Roads Board as the owners of Well-maintained Highways. Action: Steve Berry to clarify the role of the UKRB in the process for taking forward the actions pertaining to updates to Well-maintained Highways, following recommendations from the Potholes Review 7. Road Condition in England The Board highlighted some concerns with the approach taken to data collection for the Road Condition in England report. Action: Amanda Richards to raise the issue of data problems connected with the Road Condition in England report at the Interim Road Condition Steering Group 8. Codes of practice updates a. Updates to Well-maintained Highways
The updates were endorsed by the UK Roads Board. b. Possible reduction in Service Levels and Inspection Regime in Wellmaintained Highways, due to current financial situation. Justin Ward said Steve Berry had informed him that following the Pothole Review report, Steve had merged the recommendations arising from this report which refer to UKRLG and the contract will consider both this and the other issues agreed previously by the UKRLG. Justin said Steve anticipates sending a final letter to Atkins shortly, although he has asked them to start the works now. David Davies asked for clarification on the consultation process for the review Action: Steve Berry to confirm if Atkins will consult Local Authorities and Devolved Government in the review of standards c. Inspection issue raised by UK Bridges Board The UK Roads Board discussed a paper presented by the UK Bridges Board recommending: Update paragraph 9.19 of well-maintained Highways, to reflect the publication of, and subsequent amendment to, the Structures Code. Insert an additional section within well-maintained Highways, to discuss Safety Inspection of Highway Structures. This could draw substantially on paragraph 6.4.3 of the Structures Code. This additional section within well-maintained Highways, should specifically cover the recommendations made by the RAIB report. This additional section within well-maintained Highways, should specifically discuss the competency of highway inspectors to carry out the safety / surveillance inspection of structures and recommend that agreement be reached as to the respective responsibilities of the highway and bridge manager. The board discussed the above and recommended that paragraph 6.4.3 of the Management of Highway Structures Code is amended as follows and that Wellmaintained Highways has the following paragraph inserted. Highway safety inspectors should conduct surveillance about the condition of road markings, identify if vegetation is blocking site lines and signage, and check for any obvious visual impairment or impact damage to structures. 9. DfT liaison with Defra Justin said that Steve Berry had informed him that due to a restructuring being undertaken at DEFRA, he is yet to arrange a meeting, but that DEFRA had provided Steve with the following update:
We re currently working our way through the responses to the SuDS consultation. We had over 300 responses and since there were 29 questions I m sure you can appreciate that there is a great deal of information to sift through. As expected there are a divergence of views on some issues across the stakeholder groups (e.g. local authorities versus developers). I estimate that it will take us a few more weeks to complete the analysis of responses. We re giving priority to this at the moment so it means that work on the National Standards guidance has taken a bit of a back seat for the time being. The consultation has raised a good deal of comment about the implications of our proposals for highways and highway drainage so it would be really useful to talk through some of the issues with you but we re not really in a position to have a meaningful discussion just yet. 10. Business plan updates Justin said that the Board Chairman had provided updates to their respective plans. Asset management: http://www.ukroadsliaisongroup.org/en/ukrlg-andboards/uk-roads-board/uk-roads-board-subgroups/asset-management-subgroup/asset-management-business-plan.cfm Footways & Cycleways Management Group: http://www.ukroadsliaisongroup.org/en/ukrlg-and-boards/uk-roadsboard/uk-roads-board-subgroups/footways-and-cycleways-managementgroup/footways-and-cycleways-management-group-business-plan.cfm National Winter Service Research Group: http://www.ukroadsliaisongroup.org/en/ukrlg-and-boards/uk-roadsboard/uk-roads-board-subgroups/national-winter-service-researchgroup/national-winter-service-research-group-business-plan.cfm The Board discussed funding issues in more detail and agreed that the Footways & Cycleways Management Group had particular funding problems in regards to moving work forward. The Board agreed that a short briefing note on the situation would be helpful. Action: Steve Spender to provide a short briefing note on the funding problems with progressing a couple of actions in the FCMG business plan: Risk modelling - upgrade the footway risk model to include cycle tracks and Cycling research - development of condition inspection methods/surveys for cycle tracks 11. Communication The Board agreed the following: To communicate the importance of the TAP site To promote the training proposal from NWSRG To highlight the FCMG document on Cycletrack Maintenance Issues
12. Any other business Manhole covers - Andy Best said that TfL was experiencing problems with the ironwork on manhole covers. Some board members shared their experiences on the issue. Flood defences Justin Ward said that Steve Berry wanted to ask the Board members if they are aware of any local highway authority using their transport infrastructure as a flood defence as it is an inquiry DfT have received. Action: David Davis to send details of Lincoln Washlands Flood Alleviation Scheme [completed] Action: Marcus Lloyd to send relevant section of Flood and Water Management Act on flood defences [completed] Network Rail Tony Jackson from Network Rail gave a brief presentation, highlighting that the Quarmby Review (Recommendation 21) had identified that access to roads and key facilities was important to keep the country moving during severe weather episodes. Recommendation 21: Individual rail companies and Network Rail should make regular contact with local highway authorities during the winter planning process and season to ensure that the boundaries between public and railway-owned areas regarding the road and footway access to stations, depots and signalling centres are clearly understood between their organisations, and that both are treated in a coordinated way during periods of snow and ice. Tony explained that he was working through the following actions: Plan to coordinate treatment at key locations such as maintenance depots, electrical control rooms, signalling centres, fleet depots and stations, to maintain an operational railway. Avoid snow build up at level crossings from ploughing activities by Highways and Local Authorities. Establish key contacts in Highways and Local Authorities for command structure. Tony said that he was developing a map of key locations for road gritting. Action: UK Roads Board to work with Tony Jackson to address recommendation 21 from the Quarmby Review 13. Date of next meeting 4 October 2012