MAIN FEATURE
ROADS
Whilst readers may thin that implementing monitoring and maintaining rail drainage might be complex enough with a national and regional approach with five regions and 15 major lines, they should perhaps consider this as not so much simple but organised with the national and regional operations looking to each other for support and sharing of information and technical know-how. The question is how much of this, what might be seen as ‘joined-up-thinking’ is reflected in the nation’s road network?
The biggest name known to most of the general public is Highways England (or whichever regional office covers that part of the United Kingdom for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).
If we look at England as the larger example, whilst probably the best known name, Highways England looks after only around 2% of the roads which mostly include the motorways and major A roads.
Beyond this, the problem sometimes arises that responsibility for any particular highway drain (a highway drainage system is defined as where water that drains from roads and footpaths flows into public drainage systems) may be difficult to establish. Local authorities
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have the main responsibility for maintenance and repair of the majority of the drains servicing the road networks that are not Highways England routes. But within this there is the question of which roads are actually the ‘local’ authority’s responsibility. With private roads not being a responsibility there may be questions as to whether some roads are County, District, Metropolitan, Town or other authority responsibility. Disagreement may occur as to whose is responsible for what road may not just on the basis of the road itself. Given the state of local government finances it may be the case that it is ‘politic’ to argue that one road or another is someone else’s responsibility simply as a way to try minimise spend from an authority’s road budget. But that perhaps is getting too political.
As with rail most authorities are permitted to tender their road contracts to recognised and vetted contractors, subcontractors and specialists depending on the work that has to be done, with many utilising term contractors as their main point of contact over a fixed period of years. To visit all of the different contractors that are involved with this huge amount of work would be impossible here. So instead we look at some the views of those that offer equipment and products to these operations and see what they say about how
| March 2021 |
www.draintraderltd.com
best the roadside drainage industry can be supported.
STUDIES
One example of the type of study that involves the roadside drainage operation is one launched by Highways England to study whether surface water which runs off roads affects the level of micro-plastics in the environment. As the Government company responsible for motorways and major A roads it is committed to minimising the environmental impact of its network and in particular the vehicles using it. It already has clear assessment and design standards for maintaining and improving drainage systems on its network. Now it has kick-started this research to see if more can be done, and has recently published initial research identifying what evidence exists and to determine what further research needs doing. The academic desk top findings have also secured funding to investigate the issue further through ‘on road’ investigations.
Michael Whitehead, Principal Advisor for Water at Highways England, said: “Highways England takes environmental issues seriously and recognises the global concern around micro- plastic pollution. We have undertaken this research together with the Environment
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