Item No. 5 SEVENOAKS JOINT TRANSPORTATION BOARD – 12TH JUNE 2007 HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT SCHEME PROGRESS REPORT Report of the: West Kent Divisional Manager Status: For Consideration Executive Summary: This report describes the progress to date and anticipated progress over the next three months of all programmed highway improvements. This report supports the Key Aim of reducing speed, encouraging safer driving and tackling known speeding crash hotspots. Also improving pedestrian safety, including measures to improve access for people with disabilities as indicated in the Sevenoaks Community Plan. Portfolio Holder Mr. Peter Lake Head of Service KHS Divisional Manager – Mr. Norman Bateman Recommendation: It be RESOLVED that: (a) That Members note the progress of programmed highway improvements; (b) That the remaining planned visibility improvements at Chevening Cross be formally deleted from the programme; and (c) That, subject to an acceptable target cost being provided, construction of the footway below the railway bridge in Lower Green / Ensfield Road, Leigh that was proposed for 2008/09 be accelerated and built in 2007/08 Background 1 Kent Highway Services operates four budget areas for works on the highway: a) Operations: is a combination of planned, fixed-cost routine maintenance (e.g. grass cutting, weed treatment, new bulbs for street lighting and gully emptying) and unplanned reactive work (e.g safety repairs to footways and carriageways, winter service and dealing with floods). This type of work is not routinely reported to this Board. b) Protection is planned work that is designed to slow the existing infrastructure’s rate of deterioration. It includes surface dressing & thin surfacing carriageways, slurry-sealing footways and general drainage repairs. c) Strengthening is planned work that is designed to prolong the life of the existing infrastructure. It includes deep resurfacing of roads and pavements, bridge repairs, improving drainage and replacing street-lighting lanterns (Item No. 5)1 Sevenoaks Joint Transportation Board – 12th June 2007 Item No. 5 d) Capital Works are those works that result in new infrastructure. This budget funds highway improvement schemes including Integrated Transport Packages (which in turn covers and Local Safety Schemes). All schemes that were funded via the “BT Section 106” highways contributions have now been delivered and no further reports will be made to this Board. 2 The progress of work across the last-three-mentioned budget areas for carriageway surfacing is detailed in Appendix A to this report. Specific issues are reported as follows. 2.1 At the September 2006 meeting of this Board, Members received a report on the condition of the A224 Polhill north of Dunton Green. Officers advised that the short-term policy was to minimise the traffic load on the edge of the road by retaining the current traffic management and in the longer term to consider narrowing the carriageway to two lanes (see Appendix D, Scheme Ref SEV 27). The road’s stability would continue to be measured on an approximate annual basis but, bearing in mind the extensive traffic management that is required, this will be carried out as part of a whole-road maintenance project (eg gully-emptying, road-sweeping, patch-repairs, street light maintenance, road-markings, vegetation cut-back, tree inspections, etc). This work is scheduled for September 2007. Whilst there is no long-term policy for stabilising or reconstructing this road, SDC and KHS will review this in conjunction with the emerging traffic impact analysis of the proposed development at Fort Halstead. 3 The first draft of the extensive planned footway surfacing programme is listed as Appendix B to this report. Officers are continuing their assessment of footways across the District and this list will be revised in mid-summer. These additional roads will be reported to the next meeting of this Board. In the meantime, target costs will be sought and works orders placed for footways ranked as “very high” priority in Appendix B. 4 The March 2007 departure of the street-light design engineer responsible for the Sevenoaks district has delayed the programme of street lighting maintenance and improvements from being finalised. Work that has so far been programmed is listed in Appendix C to this report. 5 The progress of all highway improvement schemes is detailed in Appendix D. Items of note are as follows 5.1 At the last meting of this Board, Members were advised that the budget for this programme of works in 2007/08 would be £416,171. This information was based on the best information available at the time of printing, but the actual budget for the year has now been announced as being £369,000. Whilst the reduction is disappointing, this allocation for Sevenoaks does still represent an increase over previous years. 5.2 A scheme that has appeared in previous works programmes but was never completed was visibility improvements at Chevening Cross. (Item No. 5)2 Sevenoaks Joint Transportation Board – 12th June 2007 Item No. 5 The final phase of works was to comprise acquiring land to the north- east of the junction of Chevening Road and the B2211 Sundridge Road. Approximately 60metres of the established hedge would then be dug- up and disposed before a new hedge is planted up to two metres further back from Sundridge Road. This work has not been carried out; first because access had not been agreed with the land-owner and then because birds were nesting in the hedge. 5.3 These remaining works were mistakenly not carried-forward to the 2006-07 programme and the error was not picked-up in time to report to the last meeting of this Board. Bearing in mind that the proposal achieves a very low PIPKIN score and that much time has elapsed since the scheme was first tabled, officers recommend that the proposal is formally withdrawn from the programme. 5.4 At the A25 Main Road / Dryhill Lane Crossroads east of Sundridge, detailed design and observations of traffic on busy days, has made evident that it will not be possible to install an additional pedestrian refuge close to this junction without risking serious congestion. Works will therefore be limited to high friction surfacing, additional traffic warning signs and clearer road markings to aid vehicles manoeuvring. Efforts will also be made to improve the sightlines for drivers exiting Dryhill Lane. 5.5 Outline design of the proposed footway in Hildenborough Road, Leigh between Home Farm and the new housing development to the north east of the village is complete. Due to the identification of additional drainage works that are required, the estimated cost has risen from £50,000 to £62,500 and will take an estimated eleven weeks to build. 5.6 At the last meeting of this Board, Members expressed surprise that a low PIPKIN score had led to the proposed 12-metre-long footway below the railway bridge in Lower Green / Ensfield Road, Leigh being deferred for a second year. Officers have reviewed this position and, bearing in mind that the road is to be resurfaced this summer, it would be judicious to build this footway at the same time. A target price for including this in the surfacing work has been requested and a verbal update will be made at the meeting. Provided that the cost is reasonable, Members are asked to agree to build this project this year, funding it from the uncommitted budget within scheme SEV 9.0 (Safer Routes to School). This is considered reasonable because the station is well used by pupils travelling from the village to schools in Tonbridge. 6 Planned drainage improvements are listed in Appendix E. A countywide risk analysis carried out in the spring has highlighted an urgent need to rectify drainage defects on high speed roads across Kent. All relevant staff resources have therefore been tasked to this area of work and this has meant that work on designing measures to resolve flooding at lower-risk locations has ceased for the time being. Because there is no significant flooding (Item No. 5)3 Sevenoaks Joint Transportation Board – 12th June 2007 Item No. 5 reported on high-speed roads in Sevenoaks, no progress is expected to be made with further design work on schemes in this District. Key Implications Financial; Resource (non-financial); Legal etc.; Value For Money None for Sevenoaks District Council as a result of this report. The implications of these for Kent County Council are integral to the Highway Maintenance Budget Model. Sources of Information: KCC Highway Advisory Board 10 January 2006, “Highways Maintenance Budget Model” Contact Officer: Andrew Burton, Programme Delivery Manager, Kent Highway Services 08458 247 800 Director: Norman Bateman, Divisional Manager, Kent Highway Services 08458 247 800 RISK ASSESSMENT STATEMENT The Highway Maintenance Budget Model is, essentially, a risk assessment statement. Appendices A: Progress report for road surfacing B: Progress report for pavement surfacing C: Progress report for street light improvements D: Progress report for Highway Improvement Schemes E: Progress report for drainage improvements (Item No. 5)4 Sevenoaks Joint Transportation Board – 12th June 2007 Item No. 5 ROAD RESURFACING PROGRAMME 2007-08 APPENDIX A Parish / Town Road Name Location Type of work Proposed Build Date Comment Brasted Coles Lane Station Road to Rectory Lane Microasphalt 1 & 2 August Brasted High Street (part) Rectory Lane to Chart Lane Strengthening TBA Red-coloured surface Chevening Bullfinch Close (part) Chipstead Lane to Bullfinch Dene Microasphalt 1 August 07 Overlaid