Land and Environmental Services Roads Infrastructure Status & Options Report 2018 Contents 1. Introduction 2. Footways and Cycleways 3. Carriageways 4. Street Lighting 5. Road Drainage Systems 6. Traffic Signals 7. Traffic, Signs, Lines & Street Furniture 8. Structures 9. Clyde Tunnel 1. Introduction The Annual Status and Options Report is a product of our Road Asset Management Plan. It records the condition of our road assets and provides a means of identifying and prioritising the overall funding needs. This report discusses the status of our road assets in terms of extent, value and condition and presents the projected outcome of a number of investment options. The options and scenarios presented aim to assist with the budget setting process and identify where investment should be prioritised. The cost of replacing all road infrastructure assets is estimated at £4.5bn. The level of investment required to maintain our roads infrastructure in its current condition (steady state) is estimated at £30.1m per year; this equates to an annual investment of 0.67% of the total asset value. The Report contains a section for each road asset that outlines: 1. Asset Overview 2. Asset Condition. 3. Investment Options. The pie charts below illustrate and compares the annual level of investment required to maintain the asset in its current condition against the current level of investment. Steady State Investment - £30.1m Current Investment - £30.5m 1 2. Footways and Cycleways The Council is responsible for the maintenance of 3,126km of footways & 277km of Cycleways. Neighbourhood Footways This year saw the completion of a £5m investment programme that focused on highly pedestrianised neighbourhood thoroughfares. Although these footways make up a small proportion of the network, (7.5%) a high proportion (36%) of trips and falls occur at these locations. The thoroughfare investment programme was successful in delivering a safer, cleaner and more pleasant environment in 24 of the busiest neighbourhood shopping areas. The works involved replacing uneven and unsightly surfaces, decluttering and improving mobility with the installation of dropped kerbs and tactile paving. This saw an immediate drop in trips and falls, with 66% less trips and falls this summer compared to the same period last year. The full impact of this investment has yet to be realised. Sustained investment to improve the condition of our neighbourhood footways continues. This programme utilises value for money treatments to prolong the life of footways by sealing the surface, whilst removing minor defects. In the last 3 years over 200km of neighbourhood footways were treated. EARLY INTERVENTION TREATMENT (SLURRY SEAL) City Centre Footways The condition of our city centre footways has improved significantly in recent years with over 20km of footways resurfaced. As with the neighbourhood thoroughfares, these highly pedestrianised footways account for a significant amount of trips and falls. 2 Impact of Recent Investment In last year’s Status and Options Report we projected that the 2017/18 footway resurfacing programmes would have a visible impact and improve the safety of the footway network. We also forecast that the proportion of footways requiring attention would fall from 18.4% to 16.7%. This year, the length of footway requiring attention fell to 16.6%. The length of footway requiring attention has fallen by 57km. A positive outcome of this targeted investment is a significant decrease in the number of trips and falls. Footway claims reduced in the last 3 years, illustrated on the graph opposite. Investing in Active Travel Glasgow’s active travel routes continue to expand in line with the Council’s priority to “Build high quality, inclusive active travel infrastructure, investing in cycling and walking to make Glasgow an excellent cycling and walking city.” Since 2010/11 investment in active travel has increased from £1.63 per head of population to circa£10. Cycling potential, safety and connectivity are assessed to prioritise investment. This approach maximises benefits, with the key objective of increasing active and sustainable travel uptake. The number of active commuters cycling into work has increased by over 200% over this period. The Glasgow Region City Deal will deliver over £400m of infrastructure improvements in the coming years. The Sauchiehall Street project is the first of 17 Avenue Projects that will see the creation of high quality active travel infrastructure being created. In addition, as part of the Glasgow’s Strategic Plan for Cycling, £1m was allocated to further develop the cycle network. LES has secured a further £240,000 of funding from Sustrans to develop detailed designs and progress to tender. It is envisaged that a further £1m match funding will be secured for the construction elements of these projects. Design work has commenced on 4 City Way Projects. City Way Projects will create segregated cycle-ways and improve connectivity with the existing cycle routes, improving links between the city centre and neighbourhoods. Housing Association Footways and Footpaths Under the Glasgow Housing Stock Transfer Agreement, Glasgow City Council has a duty to provide a maintenance service to the Housing Associations road and footway infrastructure. The Transfer Agreement states that the Council has a responsibility ‘to maintain and keep in repair the un-adopted roads, footways and footpaths so that they are safe, useable and passable (and to the extent relevant in good working order) for their normal purpose or use’. The Council is not responsible for the day-to- day upkeep and does not conduct safety inspections or provide investment to improve the condition of these assets. 3 The Council conducts repairs on these assets when safety defects or public health issues are reported. The work carried out is commensurate with the scale of the problem and the responsibility for permanent repairs and improvements lies with the housing associations. Approximately 265km of footways and footpaths associated with the housing stock transfer to Glasgow Housing Association are not adopted as public. Due to a lack of investment this infrastructure is in poor condition and requires extensive remedial work to bring it up to an acceptable standard which has an estimated cost of £7m. Adoption of these footways and footpaths would increase the length of the asset by 7%. 2.1 Footway Condition Our most recent footway condition data indicates that 1.5% (c47km) of our footways exhibit major or structural deterioration and 15.1% (c470km) exhibit minor deterioration such as cracking and oxidisation. Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction has steadily improved since 2011. This is attributed to an extensive programme of early intervention treatments on neighbourhood footways, recent strategies to invest on those footways with the highest footfall and the local area teams being focused and more attentive to community concerns. The recent 4% fall in satisfaction levels followed the beast from the east. Drops in levels of customer satisfaction were seen nationally. 4 2.2 Footway Investment Options While the number of trips and falls has reduced in recent years, investment prior to 2017/18, was less than our models predict is required to maintain steady state condition. A sustained level of investment in the short term would deliver noticeable improvement in the condition of our footways. The investment scenarios outlined below improve condition in the short and medium term whilst offering value in the longer term. Option 1 - No Investment No further investment in the asset would lead to severe deterioration, with over half of footways in poor condition after 20 years and an additional c65km of our footways will deteriorate to poor condition annually. This option would result in significant risk to public safety and dramatically increase the number of slips trips and falls and the cost of reactive repairs. Option 2 - Steady State An annual investment of £1.9m is required to maintain the existing condition our footway network. Option 3 - Remove all Major (Red) Defects An annual investment of £3.3m for 5 years would remove all footways exhibiting major defects and structural deterioration. These are the defects that pose the most danger to the public resulting in slips trips and falls. The condition of the footway asset could then be maintained at this level for £1.8m per annum. Option 4 - All Footways in Good Condition In addition to the 2% of our footways with major defects, 16% of our footways (477km) are showing early signs of deterioration. An investment of £6.3m in year 1 followed by an investment of £3.3m for the subsequent 4 years would remove all footways exhibiting major defects and treat the 477km of footway showing deterioration with an early intervention treatment. The condition of the footway asset could then be maintained at this level for £1.8m per annum 5 3. Carriageway 3.1 Asset Overview Glasgow City Council is responsible for the management and maintenance of 1,906km of roads. Since 2013 the condition of our roads has steadily improved. The latest condition data indicates that 70.7% of our roads are in an acceptable condition. This compares favourably with the latest available Scottish average of 63.3% of roads in acceptable condition. The impact of this year’s capital investment is yet to be realised. Table 1.0 – Investment vs Condition Managing Potholes The success of recent investment strategies is verified by the reduction in the number of potholes reported; this is illustrated in Table 2.0. Prior to the arrival of the ‘beast from the east’ the number of reported potholes reduced significantly, with the number of annual public reports falling from over 19,000 in 2011 to less than 7,000 in 2017. Table 2.0 – No. of Potholes Reported 6 The Impact of Severe Winter Weather The severity and extent of last winter caused widespread damage to our roads, with customer satisfaction levels falling from 31% to 20%.