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STREET WORKS & UTILITIES 45
Scoring street works
Utilities and local authorities carry out a number of essential repairs on the network and are often seen as one of the most visual reasons for traffi c delays. Road users blame holes in the road for disruption to their journey but how much congestion is really down to street works?
In seeking to answer this, the Highway Authorities and Utilities Committee (HAUC UK) have introduced a quarterly ‘scorecard’ of performance indicators analysing works on the road network.
HAUC UK is well placed to do this. Its membership brings highway authorities, utilities and government together with the aim of working safely and smartly to reduce the impact of street and roadworks on members of the public throughout the UK.
HAUC UK works with its members in the regions and central government to ensure that processes, systems and legislation don’t hamper the travelling public whilst also maintaining the essential services that the utility companies and highway authorities provide.
“Regular submission of data provides authorities with a clear picture of their performance over time, which will also help authorities and utilities in planning their works”
The TPIs (TMA performance indicators) are a collection of measures for works promoters in the industry and were designed by HAUC UK together with system developers producing the specifi cation to extract the data from their existing street works management systems. The developers are organisations that produce the computer systems used by local authorities and utility companies to manage the electronic transfer
of notices relating to street works. Utility companies are not required to submit data as information about their works is already contained in the local authorities’ systems.
The TPIs collected include information in four key areas which can have an effect on the road network; occupancy of the highway, coordination and notice quality, reinstatement and safety.
The resulting records are a summary of statistical information relating to both utility and local authority works, detailing the sets of street works that are taking place across the county. They provide factual performance data to drive standards as required and praise good performance.
The purpose of the scorecard is to support self-regulation and good practice which reduces the need to introduce legislation and the resulting red tape that normally accompanies such measures. It also means that decisions about future street and roadworks management can be made using a base of factual evidence.
HAUC UK has reached an agreement with GeoPlace to carry out analysis of the data on behalf of HAUC UK. The Joint Authorities Group (JAG UK) works closely with government and represents street and road authorities on HAUC UK. JAG UK sits under the GeoPlace umbrella, giving the project a strong platform on which to grow and access GeoPlace statisticians and experts.
Local authorities submit their data to GeoPlace and if the data passes the minimum validation it is incorporated into the database and a scorecard providing a graphical summary of the 19 measures collected is returned to the authority. Due to the close working relationship with the EToN developers,
all of the measures are collected in exactly the same way from whichever organisation submits, allowing GeoPlace to collate TPIs from the across the county to provide a composite picture of performance across each of the measures.
Regular submission of data provides authorities with a clear picture of their performance over time, which will also help authorities and utilities in planning their works. The more authorities that take part, the more data becomes available and the more evidence there will be for the sector to drive improvements, for the wider benefi t of road users, citizens, local authorities and utilities.
Anita Solanki from Severn Trent Water representing the National Joint Utilities Group (NJUG) and HAUC UK who co- chairs the scorecard initiative together with Phil Cameron of Gloucestershire County Council said: “Phil and I are pleased that the work we started some time ago with the Department for Transport can now be taken to the next stage with the help of GeoPlace. This is an exciting time and this data will be invaluable to the industry, we do need more authorities submitting data but the patterns that are emerging make interesting reading.”
Norman Baker MP, the now former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, said: “I remain keen to encourage this kind of self- regulatory approach, and believe that this initiative can yield substantial dividends for local authorities and utility companies. The more authorities that take part, the more data that becomes available, and the more evidence there will be for the sector to drive improvements.”
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