Report on Core Areas of Work
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APPENDIX A - REPORT ON CORE AREAS OF WORK Carriageway Resurfacing Programme 1. Luton’s highway network is an essential communication link that serves almost everyone everyday of the week and for a wide variety of reasons from simply visiting friends and relatives to vital business deliveries. Roads are an extremely valuable asset and in Luton their Gross Replacement Value is currently £586.3m and currently depreciating by £2.56m each year. In other words for Luton’s roads to remain in a steady state condition £2.56m needs to be spent annually on road resurfacing or reconstruction. 2. The condition of the classified road network (A, B & C roads) is assessed annually using national criteria with the unclassified network assessed every two years. Highway maintenance is increasingly a matter of managing the deterioration of Luton’s roads. Weather predictions for future years indicate an increasing trend for more exceptional weather conditions resulting in further pressure on highway maintenance budgets. In 2013/14 this was borne out by the prolonged winter weather in March and April 2013 and the exceptional wet period over the past Christmas and New Year. This can result in some roads rapidly deteriorating requiring short notice changes to the resurfacing programme. 3. In 2013/14 a total of £1,193,000 capital and c. £600,000 of revenue funding was originally allocated to resurfacing. Due to the prolonged winter lasting into April 2013 and the record wet period winter 2013/14 it has proved necessary to allocate an additional £300,000 of revenue funding to the resurfacing programme. Consequently, in 2013/14 a total of c. £2,100,000 (both capital and revenue) was spent on resurfacing 30 roads. 4. The additional revenue funded resurfacing programme to be carried out in March 2014 is also shown in Appendix B: - 5. Based upon results of assessments and referrals from area Highway Inspectors, Highway Services has developed a programme of work for carriageways which need immediate and significant improvement. The five-year programme currently shows 132 of the roads in the worst condition. Although the conditions indicate work is required immediately the programme is based upon the likely available capital and revenue budgets for the next 5 years. The level of deterioration is dependent on many variables and occurs at differing rates. As a result the condition of the network is under continual assessment with the work programme similarly under review. 6. Alternative methods of carriageway treatment, such as micro-asphalt, compliment the resurfacing programme and aid efficient maintenance are being assessed. These will be used to treat surface course defects and limit the ingress of water, a factor which accelerates the deterioration of a carriageway. It is anticipated that these treatments will extend the life of the carriageway by up to ten years and delay the need for expensive full carriageway resurfacing. 7. Micro-asphalt surfacing was used on 16 roads in 2013/14; this material is designed to stop carriageway surface fretting due to an ageing binder. It seals surface imperfections and repairs and provides an even running surface. Micro-asphalts are essentially tough bitumen emulsions combined with stones that are spread as an homogeneous material. They are delivered by tanker, can be laid quickly and then trafficked within an hour thus minimising disruption. It is proposed that the programme of Micro-asphalt surfacing will continue in 2014/15. 8. Also as part of the carriageway condition assessment programme skid resistance is checked and problems identified, in 2013/14 retexturing was carried out on the main road network at Toddington Road (Sundon Arch to Montague Avenue), Sundon Park Road 9/7 (Eighth Avenue to the Three Horseshoes Roundabout) and Icknield Way (Bramingham Road to the A6 Barton Road). 9. New to 2014/15 will be a programme of recycling old road surfaces. Roads in the UK constructed prior to 1980, or surface dressed prior to the late 1980’s, can contain a percentage of coal tar, this is seen as carcinogenic and therefore must be treated as hazardous waste. Maintenance works on these roads may therefore involve excavation of materials containing coal tar and disposal; this is both expensive and unsustainable. Consequently, a testing regime is employed to determine whether tar occurs in roads due for resurfacing and a small number were found to be exceeding the threshold (these are shown for 2014/15 in Appendix B). This prohibits the excavated road surface material from being removed in the conventional way. Recycling in-situ is an option that avoids having to treat the material as a hazardous waste, as the road planings are reconstituted as a road base into the new road surfacing. 10. The environmental benefits of in-situ recycling result in: - Less expenditure on imported materials; Lower transportation costs; Recycling in-situ material conserves natural resources; Fewer lorry movements, saving energy and reducing impact on the local community; Fewer disposals to scarce landfill sites; Environmentally responsible process; Reduces CO2 emissions; 11. It is proposed to allocate £300,000 per annum for both 2014/15 and 2015/16 for a recycling programme to aid resolution of the problem of coal tar; the process will be reviewed after the two years. 12. In 2014/15 it is recommended that a total of £2,134,000 is allocated to the Carriageway Resurfacing Programme. This is made up of the LTP Highway Capital Maintenance Grant of £1,028,000, a likely £500,000 revenue contribution (dependent upon the level of reactive maintenance required), an Additional Highways Maintenance Grant of £106,000 and an LBC Capital allocation of £500,000. 13. The Carriageway Resurfacing Five Year Programme is attached as Appendix B. Area Studies 14. In 2013/14 £620,000 of LTP and £5,000 of LSTF funding was spent on this area of work. The latest position is that 20 of the original 24 areas are substantially complete and with the concentration on consultation and design in 2013/14 it is the aim that the remaining 4 areas will be completed within the timescale of the current LTP Implementation Plan 2011-2015. 15. In 2013/14 work was substantially completed on the following area studies: - i. Stopsley ii. Lewsey iii. Bramingham iv. Bushmead v. Putteridge 8 16. Considerable progress was made on delivering the Area Studies with completion of works for the above five areas. Notable works carried out in 2013/14 were as follows: - i. Refurbishment of the paving, seating and bus stop at Stopsley War Memorial; ii. Resurfacing of St. Thomas’ Road; iii. Improved zebra crossing on Stockingstone Road; iv. 23 upgraded bus stops in the Bramingham area; v. Traffic calming, 20mph speed limit and new SCHOOL KEEP CLEAR zig-zags in Warden Hill Road for Cardinal Newman High School; vi. Upgraded bus stops in Hancock Drive and Bushmead Road; vii. Improved cycle facilities with new cycle direction signing; viii. Traffic calming entry treatments at Emerald Road and Carmelite Road and a new mini-roundabout at the junction of Pastures Way and Ravenhill. ix. Resurfacing of Pastures Way between Ravenhill Way and Leagrave High Street. x. Altering of the traffic calming in Tomlinson Avenue to be more bus and emergency vehicle friendly; xi. A new surfaced footpath link between Selsey Drive and Hayling Drive; xii. 6 upgraded bus stops in the Putteridge area. 17. In addition, and in-line with the stated policy, the introduction of 20mph speeds limits has continued to be rolled out on suitable residential roads in the above areas. However, in order to control the number of road signs some short residential cul-de-sacs with no speed concerns have been omitted from 20mph speed limit order. 18. The proposed timetable to complete the four remaining areas is as follows: - i. Limbury – draft proposals drawn up with public consultation planned for spring 2014 with implementation summer 2014; ii. Crawley – initial investigation in progress with draft proposals to follow, public consultation spring 2014 with implementation summer 2014; iii. Wigmore – initial investigation commenced early 2014 with consultation summer 2014 and implementation late 2014; iv. West Icknield – initial investigation in progress with draft proposals to follow, public consultation spring 2014 with implementation autumn 2014. 19. In the area studies programme we work closely with the local community to introduce a wide variety of traffic measures including 20mph speed limits, traffic calming, safety around schools, improved pedestrian and cycle facilities, waiting restrictions and increasingly environmental improvements. Only those measures supported by a significant majority of people responding to our consultation are introduced. 20. It is recommended that £650,000 of LTP and £65,000 of LSTF funding should be allocated to this work programme for 2014/15. The emphasis will be on completing the Area Studies programme in order to meet the 2015 deadline of the LTP Implementation Plan. Local Safety Schemes and Road Safety Initiatives 21. A total of £7,500 of LTP funding was spent on this area of work in 2013/14 together with the accident investigation and assessment work to ascertain the proposed schemes for 2014/15. Local Safety Schemes are investigated in a data led manner with the locations with the worst accident problems being treated first. This should ensure that we reduce accidents by the greatest amount with the limited funding that is available. Eight priority areas (five clusters and seven routes) have been investigated. 9 22. Investigations have shown very few patterns of accident causation which can be reduced through engineering measures and therefore, the focus will still be on altering road user attitudes and behaviours about safety and achieving casualty reduction through education and enforcement detailed in Paragraph 28.