130205 02b highways review additional information · 130205 02b highways review additional...

1 130205 02b highways review additional information

HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL HIGHWAYS AND TRANSPORT CABINET PANEL TUESDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2013 AT 2.00PM REVIEW OF HIGHWAYS SERVICE - ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Report of the Chief Executive and Director of Environment Author: Vince Gilbert, Head of Highways (Tel: 01992 658127) Executive Member: Stuart Pile, Highways and Transport 1. Purpose of Report

1.1 This note includes additional information, as indicated in the circulated

report.

1.2 Graphical information is shown in colour, for clarity. Coloured copies will be available at the Panel meeting.

2. Supplementary Information for Paragraphs 5.4 and 5.6 –

Performance Data

2.1 Information on the volume and trends of various types of defects, and on the levels of outstanding work in each type, has been drawn from Ringway’s systems and is presented in the graphs on pages 6-9 of this note. To give a consistent view of the information, data for the different Cat 1 response times is shown on the same scale for all graphs.

2.2 The information includes tabulated data for the holiday period 24 December to 1 January. With the exception of street lighting, the defects reported then have been dealt with. Where defects so require, they have been made safe for potential inclusion in a future work programme.

2.3 The further information confirms the observations in the circulated report; that the key measure of “work outstanding” began to rise beyond expected limits during the second half of November. It also shows

i. an increase in the rate of 24-hour and 7-day defects in mid December, following one spell of cold weather;

ii. a significant increase in 24-hour defects during and following the more serious cold weather in the first half of January, and

Agenda Item No.

3a


iii. a marked increase in Cat 2 work being identified during January.

2.4 Updating paragraph 5.3 of the circulated report, between 1 October

and 1 February:

i. 2,536 emergency jobs have been identified (by inspectors and through public reports) and done.

ii. 7,140 24-hour jobs have been identified, of which 6,037 have been done.

iii. 3,209 7-day jobs have been identified, of which 2,541 have been done. It would be normal for 3-400 of these to be “in progress” at any one time, to create a cost-effective pool of work.

iv. 911 14-day jobs have been identified, of which 509 have been done. As with the 7-day jobs, it would be normal for a number of these to be “in progress” at any one time; usually about 100.

v. In addition, 1,071 7-day Cat 1 jobs identified under the previous contract have been done, and a small number of 24 hour and 14 day jobs have been reclassified.

2.5 The data for Cat 2 jobs shows an increase in the workpool since 1 January. Given the time taken to plan resources and obtain roadspace, it would be normal for it to take three or four weeks for a contractor to react to an upturn in Cat 2 demand, similar to that shown by the data.

2.6 Ringway will report progress weekly to County Council officers, to give assurance that progress is being made.

2.7 The graphs include information on the street lighting service, which is discussed below.

2.8 One consequence of some of Ringway’s systems being interim ones (see section 6.7) is that Ringway have been unable to provide statistics for the general service on how many defects have been repaired, or otherwise resolved, within time. This is in itself a default under the performance management system. However, the records are held and can be searched manually should it be necessary to investigate any individual defect. The provision of the statistics retrospectively is one of the County Council’s requirements for Ringway’s action plan.

3. Paragraph 5.9 – Street Lighting Service 3.1 Summary

At 28 January, there were 3,752 recorded faults on the County Council’s public lighting system, representing about 2.7% of the total “assets” – lights, signs, bollards, etc. Approximately 1640 of these have been faulty more than 20 working days.


Present performance is that the number of “out of time” faults is reducing by about 400 a week. Ringway are bringing in additional gangs, and estimate that the backlog will be cleared by late February.

3.2 Service Level

The County Council has approximately 141,000 street lighting “assets” – lighting columns, illuminated signs, etc. In the past these have generated an average of 36,000 faults per year, many in the winter months. The street lighting service levels were discussed by the Highways and Transport Cabinet Panel on the 11 January 2011 & 15 March 2011. Key points of the “safe and operational” standards are: iv. Scouting of street lighting on non-traffic routes has been

replaced with public reporting of faults using the County Council web site or CSC Service

v. The timescale to fix faults on non-traffic routes has been set at a maximum 20 working days, with a requirement to repair 98% of reported faults within this time.

vi. Street lighting on traffic routes (A,B,C roads) has to achieve a 98% fault free performance. Scouting is undertaken to detect faults.

vii. The introduction of part night lighting is a change which is not strictly a matter of maintenance standards.

3.3 Service Performance

Service performance is shown graphically in Figure 1.0:

i. From 1 October 2012 to 29 January 2013, a total of 10835 fault reports have been raised, of which 7083 have been repaired. This leaves 3752 reports in progress.

ii. Of the 3752 reports, 2652 have already been committed for repair work and of these, 2041 are listed as taking longer than the required 20 day rectification period. However, the present control system is predominantly paper based mechanism, and it has been taking about a week from when a fault is repaired on site to when it is cleared in the system. Faults are being cleared at a net rate of 400 a week, and the best estimate of actual faults out of time is therefore 1640.

iii. As of January 29th 2013, 1100 enquiries (the newest ones) are still to be committed to jobs.

iv. The recent snowfall has also had its impact on the service adding to the delay in fixing faults within time.


v. As with the rest of the service, Ringway will report progress

weekly to the County Council officers, to give assurance that progress is being made.

3.4 Actions Taken to Improve the Service

i. The use of PDAs by the gangs, which was the basis of Ringway’s tender bid, will be fully implemented with effect from 4 February, eliminating the week’s reporting delay and providing real time data on which to manage and report performance.

ii. The ‘core’ delivery team are now managing the current daily input of fault reports. Based on data collected between the 18 and 28, a total of 822 reports have been committed, and a total of 1279 jobs completed.

iii. The proposal to clear the current backlog of circa 1640 out of time reports is based on the deployment of a dedicated additional resource of five gangs, for a period of three weeks. This will be implemented with effect from 4 February.

iv. Additional staff are prioritising and committing the reports for street lighting until the lighting service returns to stability.

v. Progress will be monitored and reported to the County Council, as for the rest of the Highways core service.


Figure 1.0 – Street Lighting Service 1/10/12 to 29/1/13


• Winter recovery period increased average of urgent Cat 1 jobs from 262 per week to 1359

• Levels of outstanding 24 hour jobs have plateaued despite the peak in numbers delivered. This coincides with the improvements implemented to the 24 hour response process, and the decline in outstanding jobs shows a positive trend in performance

Total weekly Cat 1 defects, categorised by specified response time


Improvements in processes have led to positive performance trends in January

A number of actions have been introduced within the last week which will show improving trends in the week commencing 3rd Feb


The number of Cat 2 works being committed has increased since Christmas. These works form part of the Cat 2 strategic works pool. The works in this pool are being programmed for delivery.

• Street lighting figures include the traffic route faults and public reports.

• There are also circa 400 jobs that have been completed but not updated onto the system. The paper based management system that has been utilised since the beginning of the contract is now being moved to PDAs, and accurate electronic reporting data will be available from the week commencing 3rd February


Emergency jobs are dealt with as soon as they arrive. There is a backlog in closing out the electronic records. PDAs will be used as of the week commencing 3rd February, enabling accurate reporting via electronic data

1349 enquiries were received over the Christmas period. 414 of these enquiries resulted in jobs to be completed, as demonstrated in the table above.•The remaining two jobs have been made safe and now have permits for the works to start w/c 4/2•Street lighting works from this period are included in the overall street lighting totals

Works Completed

Enquires Received 1349Jobs Resultant 414Emergencies 43 4324 Hour Cat 1's 54 547 Day Cat 1's 20 2014 Day Cat 1's 7 5*Street Lighting 289 190Cat 2's 1 0

24th December ‐ 1st January

130205 02b highways review additional information · 130205 02b highways review additional...

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