North
Yorkshire County Council
Business and
Environmental Services
Executive
Members
23
April 2021
Highways Capital
Programme Headline Allocations 2022/2023
Report of the
Assistant Director – Highways and Transportation
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1.0
Purpose of
Report
1.1
That the Corporate Director, Business and Environmental Services
(BES) in consultation with BES Executive Members,
i.
Agree
the indicative headline structural highways maintenance capital
allocations for 2022/23 based on current planning
assumptions.
ii.
Grant
approval to carry out the relevant procurement processes
|
2.0
Background
2.1
The delivery of the capital works programme is the tangible outcome
of the whole of life cycle asset management approach outlined
within the North Yorkshire County Council Highways Asset Management
Framework.
2.2
Specifically the programming and delivery of capital works align
with the Highways Infrastructure Asset Management Strategy. As such
the objectives of the capital works programme are as
follows:
·
Maximise and
demonstrate Value for Money (VfM)
·
Manage VfM and
drive efficiencies over the whole programme term, not just the
financial year at hand.
·
Deliver on time
and to budget, safely and without incident
2.3
The North Yorkshire County Council Highways Capital Programme is
made up of four specific elements:
·
Street
Lighting
·
Bridges and
Structures
·
Integrated
Transport
·
Structural
Highway Maintenance
2.4
This report seeks to provide an update on funding assumptions for
2022/23 capital programme and an indicative overview of the
headline allocation per the four elements outlined
above.
3.0
Funding Position and funding assumptions
3.1
As outlined at the 26 March 2021 BES Executive members meeting,
funding received from the Department for Transport (DfT) for
2021/22 was £40.07M. This is £12.56M less than 2020/21
and £7M lower than our planning assumption for 2021/22.
This funding settlement was for one year.
3.2
As a result of the funding reduction, alongside the slippage of
schemes from 2020/21 in to 2021/22, schemes to the value of
£13.4M were approved by the Corporate Director (BES) in
consultation with Executive Members, to be moved for delivery in to
future years, with the bulk of these schemes expected to be
delivered in 2022/23.
3.3
As the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) held in November 2020,
only allocated funding for 2021/22, it is still unclear how much
funding will be made available for 2022/23 and beyond. The
government is due to set out its future spending priorities in a
new CSR later this year. A date for this has not yet been
announced.
3.4
In the absence of any further information, NYCC Officers have been
liaising with DfT officials, regarding funding announcements and
indicative allocations. There is currently no clear
indication that potential future funding allocations will be
maintained at 2021/22 (£40M) levels or move back towards the
2020/21 funding level (£47M core funding).
3.5
Funding allocations from DfT are used to develop the highways
capital works programme. Programme development throughout the
service, is based on planning to a level of available funding plus
a level of over programing to manage variations in in-year scheme
delivery. Schemes are prioritised based on an assessment of
maintenance need and are delivered up to the level of funding
available.
3.6
Given the current lack of clarity on future funding and the need to
develop a forward programme of schemes for delivery, it is proposed
that we base the 2022/23 core budget on the 2020/21 funding
settlement of £47M. The current best estimate is that the
2021/22 funding settlement is a one off and future funding
settlements will return to 2020/21 funding levels. The
£47M would is a result of the £52.6M budget minus
the £5.6M of funds received as a result of the reallocation of
Challenge Fund funding and the previous Pothole Action Fund which
finished in 20/21.
3.7
Identifying a target budget to work towards enables a forward
programme of schemes to be developed and further enhances the
development of a more substantive and agile rolling programme of
works. Given the movement of schemes in to future years from
2021/22, we currently have £13.4M of designed schemes within
the forward programme.
3.8
Based on asset condition information collected up until Autumn
2020, work is underway to develop new schemes for inclusion in the
forward programme. A report will be brought to a future meeting of
the Corporate Director and BES Executive Members, to approve the
addition of these schemes to the forward programme, the expectation
is that this will be in August 2021.
3.9
Following confirmation from DfT of 2022/23 funding, a delivery
programme for 2022/23 will be developed. This will be carried
out in line with available budgets, asset management principles and
local priorities. This will include a mix of the
following;
·
Schemes moved
from the 21/22 delivery programme
·
New
schemes from the approved forward programme
3.10
A report will be presented to a future meeting of the Corporate
Director BES and Executive Members outlining the 2022/23 delivery
programme when we have greater clarity on future funding, the
expectation is that this will be post November 2021.
3.11
Should funding received from DfT be higher than the assumed
£47M then more schemes from the forward programme will be able
to be added to the 22/23 delivery programme. Similarly, if we
receive less funding, headline allocations will be reviewed and a
higher number of schemes will be retained within the forward
programme for delivery in future years.
4.0
Proposed 2022/2023 Headline Allocations
4.1
Based on the estimated funding of £47m, the following headline
allocations are proposed for Highways Capital maintenance funding
in 2022/23. A summary of how the overall headline allocations
can be found in Appendix A
4.2
Street Lighting
The funding will
continue the upgrade of the existing street lighting stock.
The proposed allocation for 2022/23 is £0.8M
4.3
Bridges.
The funding will
continue to be targeted at maintaining and strengthening the
existing structures stock. The analysis of routine or special
inspection reports will identify and prioritise those bridges and
structures in need of treatment. The proposed allocation for
2022/23 is £2.09M
4.4
Integrated
Transport.
The proposed
headline allocation for Integrated Transport for 2022/23 is
£1.14M
4.5
Top Slice allocations
In line with
previous years, there will be an element of
“top-slicing” for specific activities and
projects. These include traffic data collection and
modelling, highway condition surveys, structures inspections; and
pavement investigation and analysis,
|
Project
|
2022/23
Allocation
/£
|
|
Network Condition
Surveys (SCANNER / SCRIM / CVI)
|
350,000
|
|
NYCC Traffic Data
Collection Contract
|
70,000
|
|
Pavement
Investigation and Analysis
|
300,000
|
|
Highway Drainage
Assets
|
40,000
|
|
Structures
Inspections
|
220,000
|
|
Pre-Planning
Application Advice
|
33,600
|
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Bridges AMX asset
management software
|
12,200
|
|
Total
Top Slice
|
1,025,800
|
|
|
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4.6
There are further costs associated with the delivery of the Capital
Programme. This includes design fees, staffing costs and
contractor overhead costs. The proposed allocation for these
costs is £7.65M
4.7
Highway Drainage.
The proposed
allocation is £600K which is in line with previous years.
4.8
Landslip Schemes
Landslips can
occur at any time of the year although many are identified at an
early stage as a consequence of routine Highway Safety Inspections.
Area Offices submit locations which are subsequently prioritised
countywide. The proposed allocation is
£600K.
4.9
Other Special Engineering Schemes:
The annual
programme of Other Special Engineering Schemes is based upon
locations identified by Area Offices which do not fall
‘objectively’ into other works categories, e.g. areas
of cobbles or setts, laybys and guardrails etc. Area Offices
identify the rationale behind their submissions and the countywide
programme is determined based upon an assessment of need and
network priority. The proposed allocation is
£600K.
4.10
Vehicle Restraint Systems (VRS):
As a consequence
of progressing our cyclical service inspection regime on our VRS
assets we have identified a significant programme of required
upgrading and repairs. In addition to this, inspections on assets
over 15 years old are required every 2 years to assess condition
and assist in prioritising repair works. The proposed allocation is
£300K.
4.11
Cattle Grids:
Each Area Office
has identified and prioritised an on-going annual programme of
cattle grid maintenance schemes. The proposed allocation is
£200K.
4.12
Footway Surface Treatment and Schemes
It is intended
to continue to fund maintenance of the footway network
(approximately 4250km) in line with existing allocations. This
level of funding in conjunction with our robust cyclic inspection
regime is responsible for the gradual reduction in the number of
successful Third Party Insurance claims. Funding for footways
surface treatments and schemes is split in to the following
categories;
4.13
Category 1a, 1 and 2 footways
The DfT have
traditionally monitored the condition of the most heavily used
element of the Footway network (Category 1a, 1 and 2), in a similar
way to carriageways and as a result the scheme based programme is
based upon network condition surveys with schemes prioritised
across the whole of the countywide network The proposed allocation
is £400K
4.14
Category 3,4 & 5 footways
The scheme based programme for Category 3, 4 & 5 Footways is
based upon locations initially identified by Local Area Offices
which are subsequently condition surveyed, and assessed in the same
way as the heavily used footway network with the resulting schemes
prioritised across the whole of the countywide network. As a
consequence of introducing a local version of the Footway Network
Survey (FNS), whereby the footway condition is identified by
Highways Officers during their routine Highway Safety Inspections,
Area Offices can now make more objective submissions of locations
for assessment and prioritisation. The proposed allocation is
£1.0M
4.15
Category 3,4 & 5 Surface Treatments
The Surface Treatment budget acknowledges that many of the lesser
used footways (Categories 3, 4 & 5) benefit in the same way as
carriageways with the application of preventative maintenance
treatments. The budget allocation is based upon the (estimated)
percentage of footway network in each Area; each Area Office is
responsible for the identification of their programme which is
based upon local knowledge and the cyclical Highway Safety
Inspections. The proposed allocation is
£520K.
4.16
Footway Patching
The patching
budget is allocated on the percentage of that category of footway
network within the Highways Area Office boundary. The proposed
allocation is £100K for Category 1a, 1 & 2 footways and
£125K for: Category 3, 4 & 5 footways.
4.17
Cycleways/Cycle Tracks:
This budget is
used for maintenance of the network of cycleways/ cycle tracks that
form part of the highway network. The proposed allocation is
£60K
4.18
Category 6 Roads (Unsurfaced Unclassified Roads)
Although our UUR
network at 730km in length is only 8% of our network length, it is
important for recreational users including walkers, horse riders,
motorcyclists and 4x4 drivers. Due to various factors, one of
which being the Mechanically Powered Vehicles effect upon the often
loose surface of these routes, their deterioration, once begun, can
accelerate rapidly. The proposed allocation for 2022/23 is
£200K
4.19
Carriageway Maintenance
The vast
majority, £29.76M of the overall budget is allocated to
carriageway structural maintenance activities, including surface
treatment, resurface and reconstruction and patching schemes.
Proposed allocations are outlined below.
Surface
Treatment
£9.04M
Resurface and
reconstruction
£11.38M
Patching
Schemes
£9.34M
4.20
For Local Roads these budgets have been allocated to each Highways
Area and then split for each road hierarchy and treatment type
based on the principles of the Highway Maintenance Investment Tool
(HMIT) as approved by the Corporate Director BES in consultation
with BES Executive Members in June 2018.
4.21
For the Strategic Roads the budgets are allocated Countywide with
scheme programmes developed to ensure efficient maintenance of the
Strategic Network.
4.22
The underlying philosophy of this element of the works programme is
to maximise the programmes of Surface Treatments (e.g. surface
dressing) which are intended to extend the ‘useful’
life of the pavement and delay the requirement to undertake more
major (Resurfacing / Reconstruction) scheme based maintenance
activities.
4.23
The Resurfacing / Reconstruction and patching schemes are
identified as a consequence of analysing road condition data in
order to identify ‘locations where maintenance should be
considered now and soon’. Secondary analysis of the data
groups together these locations of defects into homogenous
‘scheme’ lengths suggested by the local Highways Areas
teams to match their HMIT allocations.
5.0
Financial Implications
5.1
It is proposed that the 2022/23 core
budget is based on the 2020/21 funding settlement of £47M.
This is the £52.6M budget minus the £5.6M of funds
received as a result of the reallocation of Challenge Fund funding
and the previous Pothole Action Fund which finished in
20/21.
5.2
Sections 3 and 4 above and Appendix
A set out and summarise the financial aspects of this report
relative to the 2022/23 capital works programmes.
5.3
The contents of this report make no changes to the BES Capital Plan
expenditure limits.
5.4
A report
will be presented to a future meeting of the Corporate Director BES
and Executive Members outlining the 2022/23 delivery programme when
we have greater clarity on future funding, the expectation is that
this will be post November 2021.
6.0
Equalities Implications
6.1
Consideration has been given to the potential for any adverse
equality impacts arising from the recommendations. The principles
and documents discussed in this report are recommended for use in
the Well-managed Highway Infrastructure Code of Practice. Officers
consider that there are no adverse impacts arising from the
recommendations in this report.
6.2
A copy of the ‘Record of Decision that Equality Impact
Assessment is not required’ form is attached as Appendix
B.
7.0
Legal Implications
7.1
The County Council, in its capacity as the Local Highway Authority,
Street Authority and Local Traffic Authority must act in accordance
with a wide range of statutory powers and duties imposed by
legislation.
7.2
The proposed capital programme allocations and schemes have been
developed and prioritised in line with the relevant legislation
such as the Highways Act 1980, the New Roads and Street Works Act
1991, the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, the Transport Act 2000,
the Traffic Management Act 2004 and the Flood and Water Management
Act 2010.
8.0
Climate Change Implications
8.1
A climate change impact assessment has been carried out, see
Appendix C. Steps will be taken during scheme delivery construction
to reduce emissions as far as possible
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9.0
Recommendation
i.
Agree
the indicative headline structural highways maintenance capital
allocations based on current planning assumptions.
ii.
Grant
approval to carry out the relevant procurement
processes.
|
BARRIE
MASON
Assistant
Director - Highways and Transportation
Author of Report;
James Gilroy
Background
Documents: None
