B.2.3.1. The statutory basis for Winter Service in England and Wales is addressed through Section 41 (1A) of the Highways Act on the 31st October 2003, by Section 111 of the Railways and Safety Transport Act 2003. The first part of Section 41(1) reads:
a) ‘The authority who are for the time being the Highway Authority for a highway maintainable at the public expense are under a duty, subject to subsections (2) and (4) below, to maintain the highway.
b) (1) In particular, a Highway Authority are under a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice’.
B.2.3.2. Section 150 of the Highways Act 1980 also imposes a duty upon authorities to remove any obstruction of the highway resulting from ‘accumulation of snow or from the falling down of banks on the side of the highway, or from any other cause’.
77 B.2.3.3. In addition, the Traffic Management Act 2004 placed a network management
duty on all local traffic authorities in England. It requires authorities to do all that is reasonably practicable to manage the network effectively to keep traffic moving. In meeting the duty, authorities should establish contingency plans for dealing promptly and effectively with unplanned events, such as unforeseen weather conditions, as far as is reasonably practicable.
B.2.3.4. Given the scale of financial and other resources involved in delivering the Winter Service, it is not considered reasonable either to:
provide the service on all parts of the Network; and
ensure carriageways, footways and cycle routes are kept free of ice or snow at all times, even on the treated parts of the network.
B.2.3.5. In Scotland statutory responsibilities are defined by Section 34 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 which requires that “a road authority shall take such steps as it considers reasonable to prevent snow and ice endangering the safe passage of pedestrians and vehicles over public roads”.
B.2.3.6. In Northern Ireland, the Roads (NI) Order 1993 SI 1993/3160 (NI 15) provides, in Article 10, a duty for the Department for Infrastructure to “remove snow, soil etc which has fallen on a road”. Section 9 of the Order also enables the authority to
“take such action as it considers reasonable to prevent snow or ice interfering with the safe passage of persons and vehicles using the road”. However paragraph 7 of Article 10 provides protection from liability and states that
“Nothing in this Article operates to confer on any person a right of action in tort against the Department for failing to carry out any duty imposed on it under the Article”.
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SECTION B.3.
ASSET MANAGEMENT INFORMATION – HIGHWAYS
B.3.1. INTRODUCTION
B.3.1.1. Asset data management is dealt with in the UKRLG Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Guidance (HIAMG), Part B. This document should be referred to and the advice below considered supplementary.
B.3.1.2. Asset management systems are dealt with in the UKRLG Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Guidance, Part C. This document should be referred to and the advice below considered supplementary.
B.3.2. PRINCIPLES AND CONSIDERATIONS
B.3.2.1. A highway asset management system is essential to deliver an effective and efficient approach to asset management. This should typically have the capacity to cover all of the asset types outlined in Section B.1.1.1, with the actual data collected aligning to the authority’s own asset data management strategy.
B.3.2.2. Authorities will require a system to suit particular local needs and responsibilities, procurement arrangements and other factors. It may include specialist
applications indirectly related to highway maintenance, for example traffic and accident analysis.
B.3.2.3. Compatibility between highway asset management systems and those for structures and lighting will support a holistic approach to managing the network.
B.3.2.4. UKPMS is the national standard for pavement management systems, where the usage of the word ‘pavement’ refers to the technical definition of ‘the collective term for all hardened surfaces within the highway, including carriageways, footways and cycle routes’.
B.3.2.5. Other asset management systems that operate outside of the UKPMS accreditation system may also provide suitable functionality and value for Highway Authority users. The specifications and performance of such systems should be reviewed and assessed against both user requirements and areas where national consistency is required.
B.3.2.6. Systems that are accredited to the UKPMS standard have successfully demonstrated that they meet the current national standards with respect to:
Loading network, inventory and condition data, including data collected by:
o Visual surveys (CVI and DVI);
o SCANNER and TRACS Type Surveys (TTS);
o Footway Network Surveys (FNS);
79 o SCRIM;
o GripTester; and o Deflectograph.
Data processing
Condition reporting, including national reports for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and local reports for unclassified roads and footways
Financial reporting to support asset management, including o Inventory reports;
o Accumulated and annual depreciation of carriageways; and
o Supporting information for footways, cycletracks and paved verges.
B.3.2.7. UKPMS accreditation is governed by the Road Condition Management Group (RCMG) on behalf of the UK Roads Board. More information about UKPMS – including a current list of accredited systems - is available from the RCMG page on the UKRLG website.
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SECTION B.4.
ASSET CONDITION AND
INVESTIGATORY LEVELS – HIGHWAYS
B.4.1. INTRODUCTION
B.4.1.1. This section deals with asset condition for each element of the network and its contribution to safety, serviceability and sustainability.
B.4.2. PRINCIPLES AND CONSIDERATIONS
B.4.2.1. Each element of the network could have different condition requirements, a minimum one to satisfy the need for safety, and higher ones, designed to meet local requirements for serviceability or sustainability, as part of the asset management strategy adopted by the authority. These different higher levels have previously been given a range of names including ‘warning levels’,
‘intervention levels’ and ‘investigatory levels’. In this Code the term has been referred to as ‘investigatory levels’, as failure to reach the defined level in most cases could give rise to a range of responses each of which needs to be further investigated, prior to action being taken. There will be certain circumstances, of course, primarily for safety reasons, where an immediate response is necessary.
B.4.2.2. The term ‘intervention level’ has been retained only for use with the automatic treatment selection criteria used in UKPMS, as the system does actually
‘intervene’ at the defined level of condition. It will, however, always be referred to as system intervention level (SIL) for the avoidance of confusion.
B.4.2.3. The following paragraphs set out the suggestions for the nature of contributions made by each element of the network towards safety, serviceability and
sustainability.
B.4.2.4. Each element of the network will contribute differently to the objective of customer service and possibly within different timescales. For example, good surface condition or signing will have an immediately positive effect, whilst the effect of good quality drainage will probably be imperceptible for most of the time.
B.4.2.5. As outlined in Section A.4.1.4, the level of customer service is generally more relevant when applied to the whole of the network and it is therefore not dealt with by this Code under each of the individual elements in the following sections.
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