Agenda item - OPERATION HORIZON - 5 YEAR MAINTENANCE PLAN

To receive a report detailing a new targeted investment programme of road maintenance for Guildford. The programme will result in £12m being invested in the local road network and will enable 85km of road (12% of local network) to be re-surfaced over 100 separate road schemes.

The Local Committee (Guildford) agreed to

(i) Note the decision made by Cabinet on the 26^th March 2013 to allocate capital monies to Operation Horizon as detailed in the Medium Term Financial Plan.

(ii) Formally approve the Operation Horizon programme for Guildford and that the 85km of road, across the defined scheme list detailed in Annex One, is resurfaced over the investment period.

(iii)Note that Surrey Highways will produce an annual report in March 2014 confirming programme progress and success to date.

REASON:

17% of the County’s roads are classified as “poor”, requiring structural repair. Operation Horizon will seek to address this structural issue by rebuilding a minimum of 10% of the road network and over the investment period will realise £16m to £20m in savings, all of which will be fully re-invested in the highway network.

The investment programme will not completely resolve the wider road maintenance backlog (estimated at £200m), however, it is intended to reduce the number of roads classified as “poor” by 50% and will be a significant step in improving the overall road network

The Group Manager (Surrey Highways) spoke to the report. The Carriageway Team Leader (Surrey Highways) was in attendance.

Operation Horizon was a new targeted investment programme for road maintenance across the county. Overall contract savings from the programme would be 16-20% on existing contract rates enabling £16-20 million to be reinvested into Surrey’s roads. Year one of the programme was received as a tabled document and can be found at Annexe 2 (a+b) of these minutes.

Public Forum Questions (at the Chairman’s discretion)

Public concern was focused on the condition and scheduled repair of The Drift and The Street both in East Horsley. The complete length of The Drift would be scheduled for repair and reconstruction in the New Year when the drainage would also be addressed. . Some roads were not included in Year one due to drainage issues. The meeting heard that there would also be a five-year drainage plan for the borough published in the New Year. The Street would be repaired under the Winter Damage budget and not Operation Horizon. A team from SCC Highways would make an assessment of The Street within the coming week.

Thereafter the member discussion began.

The members were in overall support of the programme and welcomed the scheduled list of works. There was agreement that drainage works should be a high priority matched alongside of the highway repairs.

There was discussion about the repair of Cabell Road and other roads of concrete construction in north Guildford. Local members suggested bringing forward the repair of Cabell Road as they had concerns about the structure as well as the surface of the road. However, highways engineers had made an assessment and concluded that Cabell Road should be repaired in year three of the programme. The meeting heard that repairs to concrete roads were more complex and required a greater percentage of the budget and that this also needed to be taken into account within the schedule. Highways officers would work with members from north Guildford to discuss in greater detail the schedule for Cabell Road and other concrete roads that may draw similar local concern.

Members heard that grouping together of repairs was done wherever possible, however sometimes issues such structural matters and drainage work that meant some roads were repaired in part and some adjoining roads were not always repaired at the same time as one another.

Members also heard that there would be a successor project to Horizon which would address the outstanding 7% of roads still to be scheduled. This project was currently subject to a funding investment programme which would be put before Cabinet in due course. The Chairman reminded officers that local authorities and contractors must work as one to provide a ‘joined-up’ service and paid credit to the Area Highways Manager.