1983•Planning & Transport Res & Comp, Sum Ann Mtg, ProcRequires access
A CODE OF PRACTICE FOR HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE : THE SPECIFIC CASE
Peter John Selby
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Abstract
One of the functions of the Secretary of State for Transport is that of highway authority for the motorway and all-purpose trunk roads in England. This responsibility includes the maintenance of these roads and this can be divided conveniently into three basic operations: structural, winter and routine maintenance. There has been and continues to be satisfactory progress in the management of the first two of these divisions but little has been done to rationalize, on a national basis, activities which fall into the third one, routine maintenance. The situation was recognised by the Secretary of State when in autumn 1981, Inbucon Management Consultants were commissioned to examine the management and control of routine maintenance of the motorway and all-purpose trunk roads. One of the main recommendations contained in their subsequent report and accepted by the Secretary of State was for a code of practice for routine maintenance. Work on this code is now in progress and the paper describes its scope, aims and objectives, the way in which it is being prepared, how it is intended that it should be used, and its relationship with other recommendations of the Inbucon Report. In 1982 the local authority associations also recognized that it was time to take a hard look at road maintenance generally and arrangements were made to carry out a review not just of routine maintenance but of the whole range of activities. Both the Inbucon involvement and the work carried out by the associations are described in complimentary papers presented at this meeting and the author does not propose to repeat or to critically comment on what has been said. The emphasis of this paper, therefore, is on the specific and particular objectives and needs of the Department of Transport in protecting and advancing the interests of the Secretary of State, so far as routine maintenance is concerned, as an individual and independent highway authority. This report is presented in the form of an abstract. (Author/TRRL)