A REVIEW OF HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE IN LOCAL AUTHORITIES --HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION & MAINTENANCE. PROCEEDINGS OF SEMINAR F HELD AT THE PTRC TRANSPORT & PLANNING SUMMER ANNUAL MEETING, BATH UNIV. ENGLAND 7-11 SEPTEMBER 1987, VOLUME P293

A review of the efficiency and effectiveness of routine maintenance of local authority roads, addressing the question of whether there is scope for diversion of funds from routine maintenance to structural maintenance. The paper looks at the findings from the first phase of the audit commission's special study of the management of highway maintenance, which is a two-year research study being followed by audit reviews at almost all highway authorities in England and Wales and their agents. The paper concentrates on the findings related to routine maintenance (e.g. Sweeping, grass cutting, street lighting) but also refers briefly to structural maintenance. It presents some of the main conclusions on good management practice and illustrates the range in unit costs for activities such as street sweeping, gully emptying and street lighting maintenance. It shows that the highest unit cost for each activity is typically three to four times that of the lowest, and the upper quartile cost is typically twice that of the lower quartile. In 1983 the local authority associations published "highway maintenance: a code of good practice" and this paper, in part, reviews the extent to which that code has been implemented. The paper concludes that there are opportunities for diverting funds from routine maintenance to structural maintenance by improving the efficiency of routine maintenance activities. The research has been based on in-depth investigations at more than thirty authorities together with a questionnaire completed by most highway authorities in England and Wales. This has been supplemented by short visits to a number of authorities and an exercise in which authorities have been asked to cost a selection of typical maintenance jobs. The research has looked mainly at (i) the client aspects of managing the function such as policy, needs assessment, planning and control of work, (II) the unit costs of maintenance, such as the cost per square metre of urban grass cut.(a) for the covering abstract of the seminar see IRRD 816254.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0860501752
• Corporate Authors:

  PTRC Education and Research Services Limited

  110 Strand
  London WC2,   England 
• Authors:
  • Evans, S
• Publication Date: 1987

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 59-70
• Serial:
  • Publication of: PTRC EDUCATION & RESEARCH SERVICES LIMITED
  • Publisher: PTRC Education and Research Services Limited
  • ISSN: 0266-4569

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cleaning; Conferences; Costs; Economic efficiency; Grasses; Highways; Local government agencies; Maintenance; Planning; Questionnaires; Street lighting; Urban areas
• Uncontrolled Terms: Efficiency; Grass
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00483073
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• ISBN: 0-86050-175-2
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: May 31 1989 12:00AM