Cabinet Member for Highways & Infrastructure Ref No: HI21 (17/18) November 2017 Key Decision: A285 Chichester to Petworth Safer Roads Investment Part I Plan Report by Executive Director Economy, Electoral Infrastructure and Environment and Director of Divisions: Highways & Transport Petworth, Fernhurst, Chichester North Summary Highways and Transport have been successful in bidding for additional funds from the Department for Transport to deliver the A285 Chichester to Petworth Safer Roads Investment Plan. In order to deliver this scheme these funds need to be added to the existing scheme funding in the capital programme and Highways and Transport require the authority to enter into a contracting relationship with a suitable delivery partner via the County Council’s existing framework arrangements. Recommendations The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure: i. Invites the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources to add the £1.532m second Department of Transport grant to the existing allocation in the 2018/19 and 2019/20 Capital Programmes ii. Gives approval for the procurement to deliver the scheme to go to competitive tender under Lot 2 of the County Council’s Highways & Transport Frameworks 2016 as detailed in the report. iii. Delegates authority to make the decision to award the contract to the Executive Director Economy, Infrastructure and Environment following completion of the tender approval process 1. Background and Context 1.1 The A285 is a single carriageway rural route and is one of the few that runs north-south through the South Downs National Park linking the A27 with the A272 in the western part of the county. It passes through the villages of Halnaker and Duncton before reaching Petworth to the north. It is identified as Britain’s persistently highest risk road by the Road Safety Foundation 2016 EuroRAP report. 1.2 The route is 12 miles (19 km) long and currently has a EuroRAP risk rating of 199.6 fatal or serious injury (FSI) crashes per billion kilometres travelled. 96% of the deaths and serious injuries were to vehicle occupants and motorcyclists. The FSI rate to vehicle occupants on the Risk Mapping scale is medium-high risk. The addition of motorcyclists doubles the measured risk of death and injury. Together this gives the road the label of high risk and puts it at the top of “Britain’s persistently higher risk roads (Table 2 - 2009-11 & 2012-14)” in the 2016 EuroRAP report. 1.3 An international system that helps define the inherent risk of a road has been developed; similar to the way that Euro NCAP provides consumer information on the safety of new cars, it uses a star rating system. 1.4 Star Ratings are based on road inspection data and provide a simple and objective measure of the level of safety ‘built-in’ to the road for vehicle occupants, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians. 5-star roads are the safest while 1-star roads are the least safe. Inspection work undertaken by the Road Safety Foundation in December 2016 showed that 85% of the A285 rates 1 and 2-star for vehicle occupants and motorcyclists. 1.5 The 2016 EuroRAP publication indicated that the risk increased by 35% between 2009-11 and 2012-14. This was despite the implementation of a number of low cost safety measures. While these improvements had a positive impact on casualty figures; in 2015 the number of fatal or serious accidents per year dropped to only one incident; during 2016 casualties rose again to seven FSI accidents including 3 fatalities. This recent increase in casualties serves to underline the need to bring about sustainable safety improvements by upgrading the route quality and consistency to 2 and 3 stars. 1.6 West Sussex County Council has been successful in developing two bids to the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Safer Roads Fund to introduce a road safety scheme based on a series of counter measures informed by the assessment of the route by the Road Safety Foundation. The interventions are intended to improve the quality of the route by raising the star rating of the A285 to a minimum of 2 stars and to achieve 3 stars where possible saving an estimated 54 FSI casualties over 20 years. 1.7 Initial feasibility has been undertaken drawing on the countermeasures suggested by the Road Safety Foundations Safer Road Investment Programme. These formed the basis of the bids to the DfT. The proposals consist of the construction of a hardened carriageway edge strip (haunching) of minimum 0.5metre width for approximately 12 kilometres. This will be supplemented by a raised profile carriageway edge line to Traffic Signs Regulations & General Directions: 2016 Diagram 1012.3, which will be applied outside of the 30mph speed limit lengths providing running lanes of 3.25metres constant width where a standard centre line marking is present and 3.15metres where a double white line system is in place. 1.8 It is intended that the project will be processed under the WSCC Highways & Transport Frameworks 2016 as a design and build contract. 1.9 The initial grant of £0.926m awarded under the first bid has already been added to the capital programme. The second grant of £1.532m awarded in August 2017 is still to be entered onto the capital programme. 1.10 In order for the project to progress it is necessary to appoint a main contractor to deliver the Design & Build stages. This contract is to be awarded following a competitive process under Lot 2 of the WSCC Highways & Transport Frameworks 2016. The frameworks have already been competitively awarded under an OJEU compliant procurement process. 1.11 The contract will be awarded in two parts; Part 1 Detailed Design and Part 2, Construction, under a Limited Letter of Instruction. This will allow a break between the Design & Build stages during which WSCC will review the prices and the contract data with support from Professional Services before proceeding with an award for the construction stage which will require a further Limited Letter of Instruction. 2. Proposal 2.1 It is proposed to introduce a road safety improvement scheme on the A285 between the A27 and Petworth consisting of the works detailed in the two successful bids to the DfT and outlined in paragraph 1.7 above. The interventions contained in the overall programme are intended to improve the quality of the route by raising the star rating of the A285 to a minimum of 2 stars and to achieve 3 stars where possible. 2.2 In order to deliver this scheme the additional funds secured via the second DfT bid need to be added to the existing scheme funding in the capital programme and Highways and Transport require the authority to enter into a contracting relationship with a suitable delivery partner via our existing framework arrangements as detailed in paragraphs 1.10 and 1.11 above. 3. Resources 3.1 The pre-tender estimated cost of the project is £2.1m. The total DfT Road Safety Fund grant of £2.458m is expected to be sufficient to deliver the project. 3.2 Of the total grant £0.2m is allocated as project management and design costs and a project team comprising of WSCC officers supported by a project manager and quantity surveyor supplied by WSP the term consultant. 3.3 Improving the one star rated section of the route (Halnaker to Upwaltham) has a predicted BCR (Benefit Cost Ratio) of 2.91, with a slightly lower BCR of 1.96 for the rest of the route. Factors taken into account 4. Consultation 4.1 Internal WSCC Departments, Cabinet Member for Highways & Infrastructure, Local Members for: Petworth, Fernhurst, Chichester North, South Downs National Park Association, Boxgrove, East Dean, Eartham, Upwaltham, Duncton, Petworth and East Lavington Parish Councils, and the North and South Chichester County Local Committee’s. 4.2 The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure has expressed support for the scheme to be included in the highways capital improvement programmes for 2017/18 and 2018/19. 4.3 Initial stakeholder consultation on the scope and proposed countermeasures has been undertaken. A meeting was held on the 14 March 2017 with the Parish Councils, South Downs National Park and local Members. A further meeting was held with the South Downs National Park during September 2017. 4.4 All parties support the need to reduce casualties on the A285 whilst being sensitive to the status of the National Park. There is broad support for the measures proposed. There is also a desire to see further supporting measures should the funding permit, though the requirement to deliver the scheme in line with the DfT bidding process is generally understood. 4.5 A stakeholder engagement plan will be drawn up in parallel with the tender process to select a design and build contractor to ensure stakeholders are kept informed as the scheme progresses and help inform the local needs during construction, disseminate information to other interested parties and the public to ensure support and success of the scheme. 5. Risk Management Implications 5.1 The bids to DfT included an an optimism bias of 25%. Given that this scheme has a short programme, a well-defined scope, and a low risk of significant problems from adverse ground conditions etc., this is considered to have mitigated the risk of cost overrun. 5.2 In summary, approving the proposals recommended in this report is not considered to commit WSCC to significant spend on this project. Nor are they considered to be high risk proposals in their own right. 6. Other Options Considered 6.1 The scheme derives from a safer roads investment plan that formed the bases of two successful bids to a Department for Transport (DfT) road safety fund.