Asset Management Group Update

Update on Funding for 2017/18

What a difference a couple of months make! We are revising our planning for next year following some unexpected positive news on our funding allocation.

In January we received notice from the DfT that £7m additional funding is available from the National Productivity Investment Fund provided we can identify works to be completed by March 2018. £4m will support highway improvement schemes being led by our planning and transportation team and £3m will support our A- road highway maintenance programme.

In February the County Council budget meeting proposed that a one-off additional funding of £2.5m be allocated to the highway revenue budget. Councillors are particularly concerned about drainage and the condition of road surfaces and have allocated an additional £0.5m and £2m respectively.

So we have a very welcome additional £5.5m for highway maintenance next year. We have also indicated to the DfT that we are interested in a share of £75m earmarked for the next round of the challenge fund. Bidding for this will be a competitive process, against the other Highway Authorities, and the guidelines have yet to be announced but we are already thinking ahead and developing options to make a strong bid for a share of this.

Demobilisation / Mobilisation of Contracts – Depots

We have been working with SWH and Skanska to tidy up our depots and to rationalise the amount of materials stored, so that they are fully available for use under the new contract.

A few depots have been declared surplus, for example, Moretonhampstead, Hayes Tor and Camperdown. Some movement of offices is also taking place. The Highway Neighbourhood offices at Avocet and Rockbeare will be closed, and staff will work from the new Skanska offices at Heron Road Exeter and Honiton. The existing offices at Torrington will remain open until an alternative is found by Skanska. Also, a new office is being constructed at the Exeter Road depot in Okehampton. Other issues resulting from a change in contractor are being resolved. These include the deconstructing of underground fuel tanks and the exchange of health and safety monitors and other records.

If you see something that needs to be resolved, in a depot, please let the local premises manager know.

Roadside Landings Inspections

As part of the demobilisation of the SWH contract, we took on the task of inspecting the roadside landings around the county to ensure that they are clear, ready for Skanska / Kiely Bros to use during Surface Dressing 2017/18.

From a list of landing names and grid references, we had to verify the locations of the landings and include more detailed location data (for example, locality, postcode, parish and market town). This then generated a master spreadsheet and was supplemented by a separate list of landings provided by South West Highways.

From 5th December 2016 to 20th February 2017, we were able to inspect 215 landings over 23 inspection days. We were able to complete all the inspections for Eastern, Teignbridge, South Hams and Western areas, and for a large area in the North. The Northern Neighbourhood Highway Team is helping us to finish the remainder of the sites – thank you to them. Thanks also go out to other members of our team who helped us with driving and covering significantly more areas than we could have accessed as a trio and to area officers and NHOs who have helped us to clarify issues about locations of landings and questions of private ownership / third party agreements.

Most of the landings we have inspected have been clear. The findings of our inspections have been sent to Phil Trenaman at SWH, so that any landings that are not sufficiently clear can be emptied and tidied ready for the new contract.

The next task will be to ensure the inventory is updated to include the correct location of all our landings, to add on the extra landings we have found and to remove those that are no longer used.

Naomi Alway / Helen Frankpitt / Sindhura Karra (Assistant) Highway Asset Technicians

Raising Orders for 2017/18 & Bills of Quantities

We are busy with the process of raising works orders ready for the new financial year, so Skanska are able to “hit the ground running”. Features of the new contract make this process simpler, such as the fact there is no need to worry about gross and net figures as Skanska has priced on Target Costing and that basic traffic management is included in the rates. Another major feature is the payment mechanisms – Option A (price list), Option C (target cost) and Option E (cost reimbursable) – most of the time I-Ways will automatically assign this according to the type of works being undertaken.

There are other changes in the way orders are to be raised, for example, calculating some road markings, bandings being applied to various work types and uplifts being applied to quantities less than the default.

More Highway Asset Technicians have been trained in how to create take off sheets / Bills of Quantities, so that works can be ordered. This should significantly help with the large number of orders that need to be progressed, so that the contractor can fulfil the works.