Formatted 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 £574.2m and currently depreciating by £2.65m each year. In other words for Luton‟s roads to remain in a steady state condition £2.65m 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. A prolonged spell of wet or cold weather, such as the rain in 2012, can lead to some roads rapidly deteriorating requiring short notice changes to the resurfacing programme. 3. In 2012/13 a total of £1,520,000 capital and c. £380,000 revenue funding was originally allocated to resurfacing. Due to the extremely wet summer it proved necessary to allocate an additional £125,000 of capital and £450,000 of revenue funding to the resurfacing programme. Consequently, in 2012/13 we spent a total of c. £2,475,000 on resurfacing 370 roads. Formatted: Not Highlight 4. The additional revenue funded resurfacing programme carried out in March 2013 is shown below: - Road Length Treated Ward Estimated Cost (£) Crawley Green Road From Vauxhall Way to Devon Road Crawley 102,000 (scheduled for March 2013) Hillcrest Avenue All Icknield 25,000 Hillview Crescent All Icknield 25,000 Kent Road All (scheduled for March 2013) Dallow 120,000 Lothair Road All Stopsley 72,000 Midland Road From Dudley Street to Railway High Town 50,000 Station Car Park (scheduled for February 2013) Northview Road All Round Green 55,000 Total Cost £450,000 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 addresses 104 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 to 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; factors which accelerate 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. 14/7 7. As part of this, it is proposed to use Micro-asphalt 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 a homogeneous material. They are delivered by tanker, can be laid quickly and then trafficked within an hour thus minimising disruption. 8. In 2013/14 it is recommended that a total of £1,693,000 is allocated to the Carriageway Resurfacing Programme. This is made up of the LTP Highway Capital Maintenance Ggrant (£1,010,000), a £500,000 revenue contribution (this is dependent upon the level of reactive maintenance required) and the Additional Highways Maintenance Grant (£183,000). 9. The Carriageway Resurfacing Five Year Programme is attached as Appendix B. Area Studies 10. In 2012/13 £26,000 of LTP and £11,600 LSTF funding was spent on this area of work. In March 2012, Executive agreed that there should be a one-off reallocation of £500,000 from the Integrated Transport Capital Grant to the Highway Maintenance Grant to enable some change in emphasis of the delivery of schemes away from autumn/winter to spring/summer delivery, this in combination with the loss of the LBC capital funding and the reduced Integrated Transport Grant has slowed progress on the Area Studies programme. The position remains that 15 of the 24 areas are complete and with the concentration on consultation and design in 2012/13 it is the aim that the remaining 910 areas will also be completed within the timescale of the current LTP Implementation Plan 2011-2015. 11. Whilst the Sundon Park area itself is complete the associated changes to the pedestrian/cycle route under the railway at the Sundon Arch bridge have been delayed. When work commenced in November 2012, closure of the bridge caused considerable traffic problems and consequently the Traffic Manager decided that it had to be called off after just one day. Following negotiations, work has been rescheduled for the end of March 2013 and will be carried out over three consecutive weekends to minimise traffic problems. 12. As part of the Lewsey Area a new Puffin type traffic signal controlled pedestrian crossing was completed on Leagrave High Street to serve the Barnfield West Academy. Otherwise work on the Lewsey Area has been confined to consultation and/ design in preparation for implementation in summer 2013. 13. The current position with the remaining areas is as follows: - i. Stopsley – consultation complete. Implementation summer 2013; ii. Lewsey Farm – initial consultation last year, proposals drawn up with secondary consultation to follow. Planned implementation summer 2013; Formatted: Not Highlight iii. Bushmead – initial investigation has taken place, draft proposals drawn up with consultation late spring/early summer with planned implementation late summer 2013; Formatted: Not Highlight iv. Bramingham - initial investigation has taken place, draft proposals drawn up, public consultation late spring/early summer with planned implementation late summer 2013; Formatted: Not Highlight v. Putteridge – initial investigation has taken place, draft proposals drawn up, public consultation late spring/early summer with planned implementation late summer 2013; Formatted: Not Highlight ii. Formatted: Bullets and Numbering vi. Limbury – Willow Way Residents Parking Scheme (Willow Way, Hurst Way, Rydal way, Ambleside & River Way) public consultation recently finished and results being evaluated, scheme likely to be dropped. Other area studdrafty proposals are being Formatted: Not Highlight drawn up with public consultation planned for late 2013 or early 2014; Formatted: Not Highlight 8 Formatted: List Paragraph, Right 0 ch, Space Before: 0 pt, No bullets or vii. Crawley – initial investigation in progress with draft proposals to follow, public numbering, Tab stops: Not at 1.69 cm consultation late 2013 or early 2014. iii.early summer. Formatted: Bullets and Numbering iv.viii. West Icknield – initial investigation in progress with draft proposals to follow, Formatted: Not Highlight public consultation early 2014;initial investigation has taken place, draft proposals to be drawn up with public consultation late summer/early autumn. v.Bushmead – initial investigation has taken place, draft proposals to be drawn up with consultation late spring/early summer with planned implementation late summer. vi.Crawley – initial investigation in progress with draft proposals to follow, public consultation late 2013 or early 2014. vii.Putteridge – initial investigation has taken place, draft proposals have been drawn up, public consultation late spring/early summer with planned implementation late summer. viii.ix. Wigmore – initial investigation to commence 2013. ix.Bramingham - initial investigation has taken place, draft proposals to be drawn up, Formatted: Highlight been drawn up, public consultation late spring/early summer with planned implementation late summer. 14. As part of this 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 environmental improvements. Only those measures supported by a significant majority of people responding to our consultation are introduced. 15. It is recommended that £525,000500,000 of LTP and £65,000 of LSTF funding should be allocated to this work programme for 2013/14. 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 Formatted: Not Highlight 16. A total of £38,000 of LTP funding was spent on this area of work in 2012/13 together with the accident investigation and assessment work to ascertain the proposed schemes for 2013/14. 17. 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. 18. During 2012/13