Visit to Transco, Wardour Street Area Gas Mains Replacement Site, 8 April 2003

Participants:

Transco

Edwin Bannock MBE, Network Director, London

Lester Callanan, Transco Customer Service Manager, London

Jane Smith, Public Affairs Liaison Manager

Kevin Wood, Transco's, Network Operations Manager, London

Transport Committee

Dr Greg Marsden, Committee Specialist

Background

Transco owns and operates the majority of the UK gas transmission and distribution network. 93 per cent of UK gas demand flows through the Transco network serving 20 million homes and businesses. It is responsible for a network of 275,000 km of gas mains. It has a programme, agreed with the Health and Safety Executive to replace all metallic gas mains within 30 metres of buildings within 30 years. This programme will inevitably cause significant disruption to traffic.

Site Visit Description

The Committee Specialist visited a major gas main replacement site in London to examine how such works are managed. The site was based around Wardour Street and Chinatown in the centre of London. The works being undertaken were at the heart of some of the most sensitive areas of central London. For example, Oxford Street was closed for two weeks to carry out some of the works. However, advanced notification meant that serious traffic disruption was avoided. The streetworks ran outside many shop frontages and along side several theatre frontages in the West End. In addition, the mains replacement required digging up through the centre of Chinatown which could not be done without disrupting the vehicular access to shops and restaurants fronting the area.

Minimising Disruption

Transco made strenuous efforts to forewarn and consult on the likely disruption that the work would cause. Close liaison with an official representing Chinatown traders ensured that deliveries were able to be brought in past the works by trolley and sack truck while the main was being replaced. The work programme was adjusted to avoid clashing with the Soho festival. In addition, working practices were altered to avoid disrupting matinee theatre performances. Night working was not possible due to the mixture of theatres, business and residents in the area.

Technology to reduce disruption

A range of new technologies is being employed to reduce the disruption caused by the mains replacement programme. In particular, the plastic pipe technology allows the mains to be replaced inside the existing cast-iron main structures in some circumstances. This reduces the amount of trench digging required as only entry and exit holes are required. The plastic piping is also more versatile than the cast-iron mains it replaces and is faster to install.

Joint working with other companies

There was mixed evidence of joint working between Transco and other utilities. Transco made their plans available to the local authority and highlighted a number of instances where combined works had been carried out and where defects in other utility pipes or local authority drains were identified and rectified during their works. However, within one month of repaving the centre of Chinatown, the walkabout tour identified further works by another utility company that resulted in the block paving being removed and poorly reinstated.

Summary

The site in London was a particularly complex and sensitive section of work. It had been well managed and considerable costs incurred by Transco in advising, consulting on and reducing the disruption both to traffic and the business environment. It would be disadvantageous if a scheme of purchasing the right to work in a road led the contractors away from this process of open dialogue with local businesses and residents.

Visit to BT, Marconi control centre, Basildon, 11 April 2003

Participants:

BT

Roger Newson, Senior Contracts Manager

Granville Taylor, General Manager Regulatory Compliance

Andy Steele, Street Works Consultancy Manager

Tim O'Sullivan, Head of Parliamentary Affairs,

Marconi

Martin Giles, Operations Manager, Marconi

Transport Committee

Dr Greg Marsden, Committee Specialist

Background

BT supplies telecommunications services nationally to business and residential customers. 90 per cent of its works are for repairs or to connect new customers and occur at relatively short notice. 10 per cent of its work is planned over longer periods. 89 per cent of its work is carried out off the road carriageway, in footpaths or verges. The total cost of its civil engineering programme of works is around £150 million per year.

The Site Visit

The Committee Specialist visited the Basildon office of Marconi, which is responsible for implementing street works for BT for much of the network on the East and South East of London. The visit consisted of two main parts: a tour of the information management office and a visit to a site in Dagenham.

Managing the New Roads and Street Works Act

The first part of the visit was a discussion and tour of the communication facilities for the management of BT's obligations under the New Roads and Street Works Act. The system and the subsequent civil engineering works are managed on behalf of BT by Marconi. The Basildon office manages street works over a large network on the East and South East of London.

Marconi have developed new software to manage the communication of information between themselves, the local authorities and the teams working on the street. The software system has been upgraded several times to overcome some of the initial glitches experienced when the requirements of Section 74 of the New Road and Street Works Act were enacted. There is a dedicated team of operators each responsible for communications with a small number of local authorities. The operators received a period of training and were encouraged to develop a rapport with the local authority highways department to ensure co-operative working. Marconi believe that the new system has reduced the number of administrative mistakes in passing the information to local authorities on when works start and finish.

Problems

BT pointed out that there were still a number of occasions when street works were finished and cleared away but a small amount of equipment, such as a cone or barrier, were left on site. BT were being charged for this by many local authorities at the same rate that would be levied if the works overran. BT accepted that this encouraged them to clear the sites more thoroughly but felt that this process could be dealt with through a courtesy call by the local authority in the first instance and perhaps then a fine at a later stage. It noted the variety of working practices adopted by the local authorities it had to work with.

Site works

A visit to a customer installation site in Dagenham was provided. The work was in the pathway in an urban residential area. Two other sites could not be visited as parked cars had meant that the work could not be carried out. This adds to the complexity of scheduling works. The works were being carried out in one day, with a minimum of disruption to passing traffic and pedestrians. Whilst it was not possible to see the standard of the surface repair as the works were on-going, the quality of the aggregate to fill the hole was much higher than that which had been dug out from the pavement.

Summary

BT and Marconi have invested heavily in systems to try and make Section 74 of the New Roads and Street Works Act function properly. This reduces the costs that they incur. The new system has not yet been in operation long enough for the Department's monitoring data to pick up any improvements.