House of Commons - Highways Agency: Contracting for Highways Maintenance

Highways Agency: Contracting for Highways Maintenance - Public Accounts Committee Contents

2 Managing contractors to deliver value for money and better outcomes for road users

7. The Agency needs skilled and knowledgeable staff to manage contractors robustly.[14] The Agency's directorate responsible for maintenance had only four quantity surveyors in early 2009 and had lost over 50 qualified engineering staff since 2004. Despite the importance of their skills in managing MAC contracts, the Agency was confident that there was sufficient engineering capacity across its business to supervise properly highways maintenance. Where it had fallen short, however, was on having the right people in post to manage the commercial aspects of MAC contracts.[15] The Agency has now increased the number of quantity surveyors it employs in the Directorate responsible for maintenance to 12. These surveyors will be deployed to the Agency's regional offices and to staff a central headquarters team.[16] Again the current economic climate appears to be working in the Agency's favour, but it is essential that the Agency maintains this skill base in the long term.[17]

8. In November 2008 the Secretary of State announced £400 million of 'fiscal stimulus' funding to support the Agency's 2009-10 budget, some of which would be available for maintenance.[18] To help ensure that this additional money does not put a strain on its area teams, the Agency has sought to allocate the funding equitably across its Highways Agency Areas.[19]

9. The Agency's principal objective in value for money terms is to maintain the network in a safe and serviceable condition at minimum cost.[20] The Agency asserted that, while the incentives contained in MAC contracts were not explicitly aligned to minimising whole life costs, it was in the interests of managing agent contractors to spend more up front, in order to lower subsequent maintenance costs.[21]

10. The Agency uses an appraisal process to decide which planned maintenance schemes should be taken forward. Within this process only pavement renewal proposals are subject to formal whole life cost analysis. The C&AG's report found that 58% by value of the schemes entering the 2008-09 renewals programme had gone through the appraisal process, but only 22% by value had been subject to formal whole life costing.[22] The Agency believed that this was due to some schemes, such as the replacement of safety fencing with concrete barriers, having had their whole life costs assessed at the standard-setting stage rather than on a project by project basis. It also believed that its data recording systems were under-reporting the number of schemes which had gone through the appraisal process.[23] The Agency believes that its Integrated Asset Management system will allow it to capture costs and lifetimes of different treatments for different types of asset and should allow wider application of whole life costing.[24]

11. The design of the MAC form of contract focuses on the outputs required rather than itemising the jobs to be performed. This allows the Agency to stand back from the detail of specification of individual jobs.[25] The Agency does not, in the normal course of its business, recommend new maintenance technology or methods to the contractor community but it anticipates that the MAC contract, by focusing on outcomes, creates an environment that encourages innovation from contractors.[26]

12. Since the C&AG last reported on highways maintenance in 2002-03, the overall condition of the road network has remained the same. In March 2009, the Agency assessed the percentage of the road network maintained in good condition to be 96.2%. This assessment was based on surveys of the road surface condition of the road network.[27] The Agency has only recently begun surveying the sub-surface condition of the network but contended that keeping the surface in good condition assured the condition of the sub-structure.[28]

13. Despite journey time reliability on the strategic road network—measured as delay seconds on the worst 10% of routes—improving in recent years, more road users are reporting delays and around 40% of these are attributing these delays to road works.[29] The Agency said that minimising congestion and delay attributable to road works is a key priority and is built into the management of planned maintenance schemes and the MAC form of contract.[30] The Agency said that it is acutely aware that signage providing warnings about approaching road works is sometimes unhelpful and can be confusing to motorists. It is an area that it intends to address in the future.[31]

14. The Agency said it takes safety on its road network very seriously and, in recent years, has launched a number of initiatives to improve safety at road works for both road users and workers. Initiatives have included a Safety Action Plan for road workers and the use of average speed cameras at road works.[32] The Agency said there was some evidence suggesting that average speed cameras had a beneficial effect on speed limit compliance and congestion, but the number of accidents was not enough to support statistical analysis of their safety benefits.[33] Despite the Agency's initiatives, safety at road works for both road users and workers has not changed much in recent years.[34] Between 2003 and 2006, the total number of road workers injured at road works, as reported by the Agency's service providers, fell from 61 to 47, and within that the number of killed and seriously injured remained stable at just under 20.[35] The Agency's 2006 figures for accidents to road workers were the latest it had available.[36]