Additional road investment 2023/24 and 2024/25
As part of the Budget 2023 announcement, additional Department for Transport funding of £2.558 million was secured for the county for improvements to C and U roads.
On 4 October 2023, the government announced a further £8.3 billion of additional highways maintenance funding over the period 2023 to 2024 and the next 10 years for local road resurfacing and wider maintenance activity on the local highway network, made possible by the Network North plan.
The Budget 2023 and Network North funding, which is in addition to the council's usual annual spend on our road network, has been allocated to improving 30 C and U roads across the county. Patching repair work was undertaken between November 2023 and March 2024, with over 140,000 sqm of surface repaired. This work is now being followed by a programme of surface dressing over the summer months, which will see approximately 473,000 sqm of highway receive surface dressing treatment.
Investment in the maintenance of Herefordshire's highway network
| Year | Total DfT grant funding | Overall total expenditure (including Herefordshire Council spend) |
|---|---|---|
| 2019/20 | £13.752m | £21.078m |
| 2020/21 | £20.083m | £29.277m |
| 2021/22 | £19.697m | £27.064m |
| 2022/23 | £15.466m | £25.568m |
| 2023/24 | £18.024m | £26.760m |
| 2024/25 | £19.126m | £38.388m |
Works programme
This programme of works has been developed using asset management processes, using all available data, for example surveys and statutory inspections, to select sections of road that are at the optimum point in their lifecycle for being surface dressed.
In addition to considering existing highways drainage issues at sites, this programme will prevent these roads from deteriorating to the point where they require expensive resurfacing.
Our delivery partners will deliver a programme and approach that is cost effective, will increase efficiency and will keep any disruption to a minimum.
This programme will allow future years' highways maintenance funding to be focused appropriately.
View the list of roads included in the surface dressing programme
View the list of roads in the road resurfacing programme
View how we deal with potholes
Asset management approach - how we decide which roads to repair and maintain
Our approach to repairing and maintaining Herefordshire's highway network is to carry out the right treatment at the right time in the right location.
Asset management is used to decide which roads require maintenance. It's about using robust data to make good, informed decisions about how we manage and maintain our highway network as effectively as possible.
We collect and analyse data about the condition of the roads and prioritise maintenance based on the severity of the issues.
We look at the long-term impact of our decisions, so rather than simply prioritising what appears to be the most pressing issues at that moment, we pick the best package of works, mixing preventative and remediation works, which will give us the best long-term result for the network within the available budget.
To decide which roads need to be maintained or repaired first, we take into consideration all roads within the county. This enables us to make the best use of the limited resources we have but it can sometimes cause confusion when we are seen to be treating roads which appear to be in a better condition than others.
How we are introducing innovation in the delivery of highways maintenance
We uses Vaisala RoadAI which combines a user-friendly Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool with high-quality geospatial video data and reliable methodology to simplify and improve pavement inventory and management. This enables our highway inspectors to quickly create thorough, accurate reports about pavement conditions using smart phones to support strategic decision-making about asset management.
We also use Gaist to survey the condition of our footway assets. This technology has allowed us to rapidly collect highly accurate and detailed information in a cost effective manner. The technology allows us to collect 20 different damage types and 7 surface/kerbing types.
In the future, we are considering the use of proven preservative treatments, which could reduce the need for costly reactive maintenance.
How we ensure utility works are completed in an organised and efficient manner
We use Street Manager to manage all aspects of permitting, assessing applications, checking for clashes and identifying collaborative working opportunities. Permits are reviewed for compliance to the Code of Practice for Co-ordination of Streetworks and Herefordshire Council's Permit Scheme.
99.8% of all permit applications have an assessment made, with this also covering a review of applicable permit conditions to help ensure the footprint of works is kept to an acceptable workable size, and the disruption to vehicular and pedestrian traffic is minimised by ensuring the most appropriate form of traffic management is used and is removed as soon as practicably possible.
Works on traffic sensitive streets are also restricted, where possible, and local communication of major disruptive works is carried out. Fixed penalty notices and shadow fixed penalty notices are used to encourage better compliance, with S74s being used to deter work from unnecessarily overrunning.
We conduct regular inspections of live sites, with 60% of all live sites receiving at least one inspection, and in addition to the sample inspections an additional 40% of inspections are carried out on reinstatements. Where required, we carry out Stage 1, 2 and 3 defect follow up inspections and hold regular meetings with key work promoters to review performances.
We are introducing a structured coring programme to highlight failures and promote higher quality first-time reinstatements.
Made possible by reallocated HS2 funding.
