Decision details

Highway Maintenance- Micro Asphalt Patching & Surfacing Programme 2020/21

Decision Maker: Assistant Director Highways and Capital Projects

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

The condition the unclassified carriageway road network was identified through our annual condition surveys as requiring urgent attention. A business case was accepted into the MTFP for £500k per year for three years to invest additional funding to improve the condition and carry out preventative treatments to halt or slow the decline.
The process involves repairs to deep failures followed by a complete road surface covering stopping the ingress of water which causes failures, therefore extending the life of the road by more than ten years.
This micro asphalt treatment has been successful in stemming a decline in condition data and delivering a 20% improvement in the condition of the network. This year is the last year of the additional funding and expect to see a further improvement.
When lockdown commenced a decision was taken by Cabinet to suspend this year’s programme given the circumstances and guidance at the time relating to Covid-19. Since then guidance has changed and the contractor has been able to adapt to new working arrangements and safely and successfully deliver this type of works in other parts of the Country.
A review was undertaken of the DBC programme which is due August/September and a proportion of the programme is now considered deliverable subject to the new working arrangements. By the time the programme commences there maybe further changes to guidance which will able more of the programme to be delivered and this will be kept under review. (see Appendix for revised programme).
Financial/staffing/health

Decision:

To progress with a revised Micro Asphalt Patching

Alternative options considered:

Suspending programme was considered but reviewed following revised guidance and contractor submissions of risk assessment and method statements. Engineers contacted colleagues in other parts of the Country to query performance under new arrangements.

Publication date: 08/07/2020

Date of decision: 27/05/2020

Accompanying Documents: