Highway maintenance backlog getting worse

"THE backlog of highway maintenance in the UK is bad and getting worse, according to a new survey of local authorities by the Institution of Civil Engineers. In the Local Transport and Public Realm Survey 2002, over three quarters of the UK’s local authorities admit that the backlog of maintenance work has increased over the last 12 months."

"The cost of eliminating the total backlog, including repairing roads, footpaths, streetlights and traffic signals, is estimated to be over £120 per head of population. However, the vast majority of this required spend –– just over £90 per head –– must be allocated to repairing carriageways according to the survey."

"The survey also found that, on average, local authorities spend only 87% of their highways maintenance statutory spending allowance as intended. As a result of this lack of investment, the worsening condition of highways has caused the number of road liability claims to rocket. More than half of the local authorities surveyed report a more than 10% rise in such claims over the last 12 months, with almost a quarter now spending over 10% of their highways budget on liability claims."

"Spending is not the only financial issue to cause concern in the survey. Equally worrying is the funding system. Thirty-seven percent of local authorities believe the system is ‘awkward’, with a further 34% branding it ‘highly complex and time-wasting’. Only 3% of those surveyed believed it to be ‘simple and effective’."

"Meanwhile, in a separate report, the Construction Products Association has called on the Government to ring-fence all local authority transport spending. Allan Wilen, the CPA’s economics director, said: ‘Local authority revenue expenditure on roads is being diverted to other local authority services, at the expense of investment in the road infrastructure, with the result that the maintenance backlog has mushroomed to around £5.5 billion."

"Calling for future funding to be linked to demonstrable improvements in the condition of the local road network, he said: ‘The Government must ensure that money allocated for transport is used for that purpose if it is to have any chance of delivering the promises it made in its 10-Year Transport Plan, published two years ago.’"

Mr Wilen added that multi-modal studies were key to the identification and delivery of new road schemes but he said only four out of the 11 studies scheduled for completion by April 2002 had actually been completed. And he warned that even those that have been completed face drawn out political and planning processes which mean that improvements will not be delivered until some time after 2010.

"‘The current review of the planning system must give special attention to the prompt delivery of urgently needed transport improvements,’ he said."