BOROUGH OF POOLE

TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY GROUP – THURSDAY 26 MAY 2005

REPORT OF HEAD OF TRANSPORTATION SERVICES

ON ROAD CONDITION INDICATORS

1.Purpose of Report

1.1To inform Members about road condition performance data for 2004/05.

2.Background

2.1Currently six national and two local indicators deal with the condition of roads and footways. However, three of the national indicators will not be used from 2005/06 onwards. The other five indicators cover different parts of the network as shown in Table 1 below:

TABLE 1

Indicator / Roads Included / Length of Road
BVPI 96
(National Indicator) / Principal or Primary Roads (‘A’ roads) / ♎ 50km
BVPI 97a
(National Indicator) / Non-Principal classified or Distributor Roads
(‘B’ and ‘C’ roads) / ♎ 50km
BVPI 97b
(National Indicator) / Unclassified Roads / ♎400km
BoP 9
(Local Indicator) / All footways / -
BoP 9b
(Local Indicator) / All Roads / ♎500km

Details of which roads are included in the categories of Primary Roads and Distributor Roads are contained in Appendix A – which is an extract from the Poole Local Plan First Alteration (Adopted March 2004). Roads listed as ‘Commercial Access Roads’ and ‘ Proposed New Primary Roads’ can be considered as Unclassified Roads as far as the indictors are concerned.

2.2Historically it has proved difficult to measure the condition of roads in a scientific manner which is repeatable from one year to the next. However, for 2004/05 nationally a new approach TTS or Tracs Type surveys, which meets these criteria was adopted for the Primary Road network. For other roads a less repeatable form of survey, called a CVI or Course Visual Inspection, was used.

2.3The Government has advised that for 2005/06 TTS will be used for the Distributor Roads as well as Primary Roads. However, this approach is unsuitable for Unclassified Roads given their restricted widths and obstruction from large numbers of parked vehicles. Hence, the Unclassified Roads, which form 80% of the network, will continue to be assessed using CVIs.

2.4Whilst CVIs are far less repeatable and more subjective they can be reliably used to give a clear ranking of roads as long as the same Survey Team is employed for all the road network. In Poole a team of inspectors from WDM undertook this work and following the survey the in-house inspectors from Transportation Services verified the ranking of the worst roads as part of the process of developing a maintenance programme for 2005/06.

2.5Unfortunately, Poole’s 2004/05 CVI rating for Distributor Roads indicates that these roads have deteriorated by a factor of 3 over one year. This is doubly unfortunate given the recent major refurbishment of Wimborne Road and Herbert Avenue within this category.

3.Comments and Conclusions

3.1It is not possible to resurvey the roads in advance of publishing the indicator so a very poor CVI for Distributor Roads (BVPI 97a) will be included in the Performance Plan. During 2005/06 a TTS survey will be undertaken and this will give a more accurate picture of how Poole’s roads relate to those of other Highway Authorities. It should be noted that failure to publish data on time could have an effect of Poole’s overall Performance Assessment and was therefore not considered an option. Last year the Government disregarded this data when assessing the Annual Progress Report – so if a similar approach is taken this year it should not affect funding for maintenance.

3.2It should also be noted that the deterioration based on CVI data is in direct contradiction with Poole’s local indicator which show that the public’s satisfaction with road maintenance has increased.

3.3The TTS method of assessing roads which is the more scientific and repeatable, is welcomed by Transportation Engineers and should allow better tracking of road condition and more accurate ranking amongst Highway Authorities.

JAMES T BRIGHT

Head of Transportation Services

Appendix A-Extract from Poole Local Plan First alteration (Adopted

March 2004)

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APPENDIX A TO THIS REPORT IS NOT AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY – PLEASE CONTACT LEGAL AND DEMOCRATIC SERVICES SHOULD A COPY BE REQUIRED

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