Highways Infrastructure Asset Management Strategy

Foreword

It is with much pleasure that I endorse Leeds City Council’s new Asset Management Strategy for Highway Infrastructure. The Leeds highway network represents a major and important feature of the physical infrastructure that impacts all of our lives. 

1. Introduction

Leeds City Council recognises the importance of its highway infrastructure and how an effectively maintained and managed network contributes to the local economy and in achieving its corporate goals. We understand that effective Asset Management is a platform to deliver clarity around standards and levels of service, and to make best use of available resources.

This “Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Strategy” sets out how the Council will best manage the highway network taking into consideration customer needs, local priorities, asset condition and best use of available resources. It presents the Council’s Strategy for the management of our highway assets as at April 2015 and allows planning over both the short and long term, whilst delivering a minimum whole life cost approach to our Highways Assets.

Leeds highway network comprises of just over 2900 kilometres of carriageway. The unclassified network accounts for around 78% of the asset. The footway and cycle network length is over 5,000 kilometres. The highway asset also includes 26,613 traffic signs, around 632 traffic signal installations, 58 kilometres of safety fencing and 104,763 lighting columns. In terms of structures the Council is responsible for 4075 road bridges, footbridges, underpasses, subways, culverts and retaining walls. The highways asset also includes drainage, street furniture, road makings and verges.

The Council has calculated that the asset value in accordance with the requirements for Whole of Government Accounts. For the end of year 2014/15 the gross replacement cost was estimated to be £6.4 billion and the depreciated replacement cost was £4.4 billion.

Asset management is seen as a tool to enable the Council to establish appropriate budget allocations by demonstrating the effects of under-investment and the implications of not meeting safety and serviceability requirements of the customers using the network.

This Strategy will be used to inform priorities in the Councils Business Planning Process and will support the continuous improvement of Highway Asset Management.

2. Asset Management Framework and Policy

This Strategy sets out how the policy within the West Yorkshire Combined Authorities Asset Management Framework will be achieved. The policy confirms the Council’s commitment and demonstrates how a Highway Asset Management approach aligns with the authority’s corporate vision and strategic objectives including: economic growth, regeneration, social inclusion and protecting the health and safety of the community and the environment.

This Asset Management Strategy is one of the key strategic documents relating to the Council’s Highway Services. A key element of the Strategy is the Council’s Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Plan (HIAMP) which is currently being opdated to reflect this new Strategy. This Plan contains approved policies and guidance, service standards and interventions in respect to the Council’s legal requirements and its service provision.

This document reflects the guidance provided by the Highways Maintenance Efficiency Programme, (HMEP) document ‘Highway Infrastructure Asset Management’ and the National Code of Practice ‘Well-maintained Highways’.

This Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Strategy is based on the framework shown in Figure 1. The elements of this strategy will support continual improvement in the management of the various highway assets. This Strategy explains how individual asset groups and elements fit in the framework, describes how the asset management planning process is implemented and refers to tools currently employed, as well as references to other key documents.

The development of the asset management framework described in Figure 1 follows national guidance and recognised good practice. It is also based on the Council’s approach to delivering services and aligns with the corporate policies on performance management and risk management.

3. Levels of Service

Levels of service describe the standard of services provided. These are measured and monitored against performance outcomes in order to determine if these satisfy customer expectations and are in line with both national and local performance indicators. There is a direct link between levels of service, corporate objectives, Local Transport Plan (LTP) priorities and funding levels. In addition, when setting and determining service levels the council must also consider its statutory obligations as the Highway Authority. Measuring risk and liability as well as the application of national standards at a local level must be taken into consideration when determining a set of baseline standards.

In line with national guidance and good practice, Leeds City Council is developing a lifecycle approach to managing its highway maintenance activities. Understanding how long specific maintenance treatments last, the relative cost of these treatments and the levels of service provided are essential pre-requisites to good asset management. Leeds’ goal is to improve public satisfaction with its highway service whilst maintaining value for money and continuing to provide a safe highway network, in line with corporate priorities.

Successful implementation relies on knowledge of the asset, its current and future performance, expenditure and customer feedback, as well as an understanding of the various service levels that may be achieved for the different funding options.

The infrastructure of the highway network is a matter of keen public interest and concern. This was established from the West Yorkshire Customer Satisfaction Transport Tracker Survey 2011. Annual consultation is planned using the NHT survey, the first one being done in the summer 2015 we qwil use thes results to runderstand our stakeholders’ needs and develop the best way to communicateour understanding.

The following four factors are used to define levels of service, where the first two reflect the requirements of the customer.

4. Strategy for Individual Asset Groups

As part of the asset management framework, and in accordance with other national guidance, the highway asset has been divided into asset groups. Each group is then broken down into asset elements (see Appendix A).

A key function of the asset management process is to understand the spending needs of each asset group and element against performance, aims and objectives. This means understanding funding needs to meet, LTP objectives, delivery, planning and performance targets.

Inherent to this process is a need to understand the influence of budget decisions on customer satisfaction and delivery of the corporate priorities. Furthermore, the impact that investing on one asset element may have on the overall performance of other asset elements, as well as the whole asset, is examined. To this end, a Strategic Investment Budget (SIB) approach has been developed and is being used.

This can only be achieved through reliable, current and robust data. Leeds City Council is developing data and information strategies, which prioritises its data collection needs, data management requirements and the IT infrastructure necessary to process and present this information.

This approach has been adopted to allow a clear understanding of budget allocation across the different asset elements, which includes recording where money is invested. This allows the Council to monitor performance against service delivery and thus allows the implementation of a continuous improvement process, within the constraints of available funds.

Dividing the asset into elements and identifying the relative costs and demand for planned, routine and reactive maintenance activities is seen as an essential process upon which SIB can be developed.

One of the aims of good asset management is to improve co-ordination between highway improvement and highway maintenance schemes. Taking into account the cost and implications of maintaining the asset at the design stage will ensure that whole life costs of schemes are optimised. The Asset Management Strategy aims to raise awareness of this issue, in accordance with national guidance, by ensuring that any new infrastructure has adopted the most appropriate design option and the most appropriate materials.

Leeds City Council has developed and is implementing a process for incorporating new works into the existing highway network. The process advocates lifecycle management values and introduces early communication between clients and maintaining agents to ensure that asset management principles have been considered and agreed as part of the scheme implementation.

This process aims to ensure that all capital and revenue investment options have been considered fully, where new works should only require maintenance in line with expected lifecycles.

This Strategy advocates a planned and risk based approach to Asset Management (including the identification of critical assets), but there may be exceptional circumstances in which a particular asset fails rapidly, beyond prediction. In this event, programmes of work will be reprioritised across all asset groups in order to facilitate the inclusion of additional schemes.

5. Asset Management Planning

The asset management strategy supports continual review and improvement of its processes and procedures, ensuring, as far as possible, that the standards identified in relevant legislation and codes of practice are adopted and that our customers receive a good and efficient service that reflects the resources available.

Leeds City Council considers that SIB is fundamental to good asset management planning and robust investment and lifecycle planning decisions. Substantial resources have therefore been focused on and will continue to support the development of processes and tools to inform budget decisions at strategic, tactical and local levels.

6. Data Management and Information Sytems

The Council’s Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Strategy and Plans are supported by robust and reliable data.

Leeds has a robust data collection methodology which ensures it meets national government survey requirements regarding road condition data collection on the principal and non-principal network. In addition it also carries out inspections and surveys on assets including, unclassified roads, footways, traffic signal installation and associated equipment, street lighting, bridges and other structures.

A video survey of our entire road network has been carried out, this is currently being used to update our inventory data for all of our Highway Assets elements.

The following systems are currently in operation by the Authority to manage its Highway Infrastructure Data:

1. Symology ‘Insight’ Highway Management System, covering most of highway management needs, including works orders, public enquiries, street works, structures, network management, inspection process
2. United Kingdom Pavement Management System (UKPMS)
3. GIS (ArcMap)
4. Bridges Management eXpert (BMX)
5. UTMC has a separate 24/7 fault management system is in place, with faults automatically highlighted by the UTMC computer, or by a member of the public or a responsible body
6. Leeds specific tools to support all these systems

7. Good Practice

Leeds City Council is committed to developing and implementing best practice and will make best use of the following forums where appropriate:

• Highway Maintenance Efficiency Programme (HMEP) - Potholes Review (Prevention and a Better Cure) and Highway Infrastructure Asset Management (Guidance Document)
• The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA)
• Highways Asset Management Financial Information Group (HAMFIG)
• UK Roads Board
• ADEPT Asset Management Working Group
• National and regional conferences
• Professional Institution engagement
• Competency training

8. Review Process, Monitoring and Performance Report

The Highways Asset Management Team are responsible for the overall management of the infrastructure of the road network in accordance with the Council’s Highway Asset Management strategy, and plan. The team also reviews and maintains these documents, provide appropriate information to support delivery of the Highway Asset Management objectives and ensure the collection of appropriate network data.

This Strategy will be reviewed annually to allow informed decisions to be made in order to accommodate any changes in funding and priorities within the longer term forecasts.

This Strategy incorporates an approach that is independent of funding levels, and therefore, significant changes to the Strategy will not need to be made if changes in available budget occur.

Progress in delivering the strategy will be reported annually in the ‘Highways Infrastructure Asset Management – State of the Highway Network Report

The benefits of implementing the Asset Management Strategy are summarised below:

• encourages engagement with other stakeholders, including Elected Members, Senior Officers and the public
• readiness to respond to changes resulting from climate change, weather emergencies, contractors, resilience and finance,
• close working and integration of efforts with other parts of the Council, including Corporate aims and objectives
• improved delivery within budget constraints – including procurement
• efficiencies – better ways of doing things, or improved service, enhancing performance in a challenging environment
• improved understanding of customer aspirations and expectations
• to influence and focus on the better use of resources

Appendices