New and innovative approaches to efficient road maintenance funding and delivery were outlined at the 2014 Road Surface Treatments Association conference.

RSTA chairman Paul Goosey began by explaining: “Central government gradually removing its financial support to local authorities over the next few years will leave a funding gap of up to 30%. Therefore innovation to find ways to overcome this shortfall is now needed more than ever.”

Engineering manager Stephen Child noted that the Isle of Wight had determined that the best way forward was to award a 25 year PFI contract covering the rehabilitation and maintenance of the highway related network.

“The advantage of this approach is the forward planning which ensures that the road network is able to meet performance requirements in 25 years,” he said.

“It also ensures that no work is done too early or, importantly, too late. Above all, the PFI approach demands good asset management and facilitates this.”

Surrey County Council's highways director Jason Russell extolled the virtues of greater collaboration in road maintenance and spoke about the South East 7 partnership, which brings together Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, Hampshire, Kent, Medway, Surrey and West Sussex councils.

Its five year capital programme titled ‘Operation Horizon’ encourages long term planning and collaboration to provides collective purchasing power that has led to cost savings of 15% or £8M a year.

“To succeed, collaborative working requires a coming together of objectives, the development of a strategic approach and the implementation of long term thinking plus the exchange of data and experience,” said Mr Russell.

President of ADEPT Steve Kent then talked about the arsenal of efficiency tools developed by the Highways Maintenance Efficiency Programme (HMEP). These include the Client/Provider Toolkit, Collaborative Alliance Toolkit and LEAN Toolkit, which are all helping local authorities to improve efficiency and save costs. However some local authorities are currently proving reluctant to adopt them.

Mr Kent said: “If the potential for a better maintained road network is to be realised then all highway stakeholders must be ready and willing to sign up to new thinking and best practice.”

Next up was surface dressing specialist Acmar France zone manager Benoit Chalet. He said: “Having the right information at the right time is essential for efficient scheduling and delivery of surface dressing projects.”

“It ensures better use of materials and equipment, saves money and time, and is integral to proper asset management.”

Acmar has developed a ‘jobs data follow up’ tool. An analytical data storage module provides real time data on the surface dressing job including location details, weather conditions and ambient temperature, road preparation and dressing type. The information is used to give accurate project site data and installation feedback.

Mr Goosey concluded that the development and implementation of new thinking would do much to relieve the enormous pressures on the maintenance of the national and local road network.

(Photo: Spencer Griffiths)

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