HIGHWAYS AGENCY News
Release (HA-34-08) issued by The Government News Network on 17 July 2008
The Highways
Agency today publishes its Annual Report for 2007-08. Over the
past year the Agency has met or exceeded most of its ministerial
targets, and has continued to establish itself as a true network
operator and traffic manager for motorways and major A roads in England.
The Annual Report shows how the Agency is making journeys safer,
delivering better information services for drivers, using
innovative techniques and technology to better manage traffic and
provide capacity on its roads, whilst working to reduce the impact
of the strategic road network on the environment.
During 2007-08 the number of deaths and serious injuries on
England's motorways and major A roads was further reduced;
eight major road improvement schemes were completed; Active
Traffic Management (ATM) was successfully trialled on the M42 and
will be extended to more of the motorways around Birmingham; and
we opened the M606/M62 high occupancy vehicle lane, near Bradford
in West Yorkshire - the first of its kind on a UK motorway.
The Agency has also taken forward the M25 DBFO (Design, Build,
Finance, Operate) contract, which includes adding capacity to 63
miles of the M25 motorway, and expects to announce the award of
the contract in late 2008.
Throughout the year the Agency and its suppliers have received
awards for its schemes, including an environmental award for the
Active Traffic Management scheme, and recognition for its safety
information toolkits for road users and stakeholders.
Graham Dalton, Highways Agency Chief Executive, said:
"Meeting or exceeding most of our key targets is an immense
credit to all the staff, our many suppliers and to my predecessor,
Archie Robertson.
"We have made a positive impact with our customers this year
with the continued extended presence of the Traffic Officer
Service, the new journey time signs for drivers, the successful
M42 Active Traffic Management (ATM) trial, new pre-journey
planning tools as well as our response to the floods last summer.
"We also have a key role in taking forward the Secretary of
State's announcement in March to investigate extending the
use of ATM and hard shoulder running to add capacity and aid
better management of traffic on our motorways."
Achievements by the Highways Agency in 2007-08 include:
* Strategic roads programme: eight major new schemes opened in
the year, including the £120 million improvement scheme for the
A2/A282 at Dartford opened five months ahead of schedule.
* Reliability: Active Traffic Management was successfully
trialled on the M42 and will be extended to more of the motorways
around Birmingham.
* Environment: Targets met on air quality, biodiversity,
landscape, noise and water quality.
* Information: Three new driver information services introduced
including our digital Traffic Radio service.
* Safety: Numbers of deaths and serious injuries on the
Agency's network have been further reduced.
* Maintenance: An £800m maintenance programme kept the
Agency's roads safe and serviceable; road condition target
met once again. Progress has been made towards establishing a cost
and efficiency indicator - a pre-cursor for a value for money
indicator. The target for delivering a value for money indicator
has moved into 2008-09.
* Road user satisfaction: Targeted satisfaction levels for
motorways and trunk roads exceeded.
Graham Dalton continued:
"Last year we made good progress in the delivery of our
major road schemes by completing eight major projects. This means
that since 2001 we have delivered 53 strategic road schemes for
our road users. We also started work on nine major road schemes,
moving them from the 'development' to the
'construction' phase.
"We have implemented the recommendations from Nichols and
the NAO reports to improve control of our major projects through
the introduction of our Projects Control Framework and the new
Commercial Division.
"To ensure that we continue to move forward with the best
business case and better value for money, a number of major road
schemes re-entered the 'options' phase while an in depth
review of the scope and costs, which included the consideration of
ATM, was carried out.
"Last year we were able to limit the increase in delays for
the 10 per cent slowest journeys to one second per mile. We were
unable to meet our journey time reliability target overall, but
statistics show that since June 2007 journey times have improved
as a result of our commitment to tackling congestion and our
ongoing investment in congestion busting measures."
Notes to Editors
Table showing how the Highways Agency performed against its
tagets is available in the Word document attached.
1. The Highways Agency is an executive agency of the Department
for Transport. We manage, maintain and improve the network of
trunk roads and motorways in England on behalf of the Secretary of State.
2. The Highways Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2007-08 is
available at http://www.highways.gov.uk.
3. Copies of the report are available to the public on http://www.highways.gov.uk
or from TSO (The Stationery Office) PO Box 29, Norwich NR3 1GN.
Telephone: 0870 600 5522. The cost is £25.75 per copy.
4. The Highways Agency traffic information website is at http://www.highways.gov.uk/trafficinfo
5. For real-time traffic information, the Highways Agency 24-hour
voice activated telephone service is on 08700 660 115. (Calls
from BT landlines to 0870 numbers will cost no more than 8p per
minute; mobile calls usually cost more).
6. To check the latest road conditions before leaving the house
or office, people can listen to Traffic Radio on DAB digital
radio. It's also available at http://www.trafficradio.org.uk
7. For general information about the Highways Agency and its
work, visit the Highways Agency website http://www.highways.gov.uk,
or telephone the Highways Agency information line on 08457 50 40
30 at any time. (Calls to 0845 numbers cost no more than 3p/min
from BT residential landlines. Call charges from other and mobile
networks may vary.)
Issued by the Highways Agency press office.
Notes
For the areas shaded in grey no comparable year target exists
(1) Target not met due to a number of underlying factors including:
* Target set in the absence of trend data;
* Impact of
traffic growth greater than anticipated;
* Short-term
disruption of major roadworks on the measured routes, and
*
One-off large scale events such as the flooding in 2007.
(2) Detailed monitoring measures were developed by 30 September
2007, but quantified targets could not be set until the programme
for 2008-09 had been approved by Ministers in March 2008. The
Department for Transport agreed that the target could be
considered met if the 2008-09 targets were set by March 2008.
(3) The major schemes progress points method is an enhanced way
of measuring and monitoring progress of the targeted programme of
improvements (TPI). Each major scheme incorporates a number of
events, including 4 'key events' and points are awarded
when they are completed. Key events comprise: invitation to
tender, award of contract, start of works and road opening.
Progress points up to a maximum of 100 are awarded for each road scheme.
(4) Progress on a number of major projects was delayed as a
result of an in depth review of their scope and costs being
undertaken, including the consideration of implementing Active
Traffic Management measures as an alternative to widening. These
project reviews ensured that the Agency was taking forward those
projects that provided the best business case and better value for money.
(5) After completing surveys on 13 of the sites the Agency
concluded that on value for money grounds no further work should
be undertaken. These 13 sites count against the target.
(6) The three new driver information services implemented are a
traffic radio service, real time CCTV images on our website and
high-quality moving images for TV travel news bulletins, and the
display of travel time information on our variable message signs
(VMS). The two further services for business cases were put to the
Minister are the Highways Agency (HA) Information Points and HA
Mobile schemes.
(7) Monitoring on the eight travel plans introduced in 2006-07
was undertaken during the year, and will continue while the longer
term impacts and benefits are assessed. 12 of the plans introduced
in 2007-08 were agreed as part of planning conditions for new
developments; development may not necessarily take place for a
number of years, or at all in some cases.
(8) Due to the compilation method these figures - by necessity -
reflect the calendar, and not the financial year. Also, the size
of the Agency's network, on which the figures have been
calculated, has reduced over the period in which comparative
statistics are presented.
(9) The measure of road surface condition is based on surveys
covering rutting, unevenness, and skid resistance. The target
takes account of the fact that it is not practical or sustainable
to maintain the whole road network in as-new condition. The
condition at which the road network is to be maintained each year
is equated to a road surface condition index score of 100 and is
the target level at which the road network will be maintained. To
allow for variability/uncertainty in annual condition scores, a
tolerance is allowed in the target.
(10) Progress has been made towards establishing a cost and
efficiency indicator, which is a pre-cursor for a value for money
indicator, but not itself a vfm indicator.
(11) The measure is calculated by applying a simple arithmetical
mean across the results of the five sub targets; the results being
expressed as a percentage.
(12) The comparable target in prior years required efficiency
improvements to be expressed in percentage terms.