Made possible by reallocated HS2 funding

Additional local highways maintenance funding for Northumberland.

In October 2023, the government announced £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. Allocated across the next 11 years, it will represent an increase of around two-thirds in Department for Transport (DfT) support for local roads.

An extra £2.768m funding has been awarded for both 2023-24 and 2024-25, and is in addition to £3.782m awarded in March 2023. This new money is additional to the existing annual Highways Maintenance Block (HMB) and Pothole Fund awards.

Our highway network in Northumberland is over 3,000 miles long and valued at over £5.8 billion. It is the largest asset for which the Council is responsible and is used regularly by many people who live and work in Northumberland. Ensuring a safe, reliable and resilient highway network is fundamental to the economic success and social well-being of the county and we want to ensure this extensive asset continues to support our corporate commitments.

We have significantly developed our approach to asset management in highways, however we recognise we are in an increasingly challenging environment, with assets that deteriorate over time without maintenance interventions, increasing traffic volumes and climate change impacts. It is essential that the we make the most effective use of the available resources and asset management principles are embedded in our approach to managing the highway infrastructure asset.

Innovation

We are using multiple technologies and innovation to deliver maintenance services across Northumberland.

Northumberland is using AI road assessment technology to aid in identifying the condition of the network assets for roads and recently extended to signs, road gullies and road markings. Data is captured by our highway inspectors using cameras in EV vehicles and then linked to our back-office systems feeding into our asset management software, giving a full picture of the current road condition and previous condition since using this technology. Click here to read the Vaisala case study.

Road reconstruction projects will be captured digitally, mapped with all project information contained and integrated into our asset management systems, providing increased data for future planning and life cycle planning.

We are currently utilising warm temperature asphalt, averaging 12,000T, equating to approximately 50T of carbon savings, offsetting the carbon that our fleets create when delivering the surfacing operations.

We also have an extensive cold recycled bound material (CRBM) programme. This allows us to process hazardous materials present within the existing road surface, recycle it, and place it back into new road maintenance works. Saving on carbon impact and disposal to landfill.

We have completed projects using plastic in roads and tyre crumb.

The Council complete an extensive annual surface dressing programme delivering over 400,000m2, and use micro-surfacing products on selected roads within the area.

We are working closely with suppliers looking at carbon neutral surfacing projects and utilising more warm temperature asphalt.

Utility Works - how we ensure utility works are completed in an organised and efficient manner 

Northumberland implemented a permit scheme in 2020. This provided the Streetworks team with increased rigour and control measures, compared to the previous noticing regime, to coordinate all notifiable works on the network in order to minimise the impact on residents and the travelling public.

Permit schemes allow authorities to add conditions to any permit prior to it being granted to ensure that specific work methodologies are used to minimise disruption. Examples of this could include limiting working hours to off peak only, ensuring that all traffic management (TM) is removed at the end of each day where it is safe to do so or specifying the location where spoil can be stored in order to remove the need for any TM.

Proposed permit durations are challenged if deemed excessive to ensure that no statutory undertaker is occupying the highways for longer than is required. Site visits are also used where appropriate to investigate if there is any possibility of altering the proposed approach and therefore being able to downscale, or remove, the need for TM.

The Streetworks team also uses One.Network, a national coordination tool, in order to avoid clashes of works and also identify potential opportunities for collaboration. Further to this, the team hosts a quarterly coordination meeting to highlight major upcoming schemes to all the works promoters in the county so any potential clashes can be identified, correctly sequenced and ideally undertaken in collaboration in order to reduce the overall occupation of the highway.

Additional highways maintenance works made possible by Budget 2023

• Additional £3.782m works 2023-24 

Additional highways maintenance works made possible by reallocated HS2 funding

• Additional £2.78m works 2023-24
• Additional £2.78m works 2024-25

Investment in the Maintenance of Local Highway Networks

 

Budget year	Total DfT capital grant funding	Total amount of capital investment in the maintenance of local highway networks (from council and DfT grant funding streams)	Total amounts of revenue spend on the maintenance of local highway networks
2019/20	£21,452,991	£23,906,957	£8,907,000
2020/21	£20,154,799	£32,084,665	£10,387,000
2021/22	£23,390,261	£35,060,369	£11,658,000
2022/23	£24,046,646	£29,438,608	£12,972,000
2023/24 (budget)	£31,178,537	£40,785,456	£14,389,000
2024/25 (budget)	£24,745,124	£31,763,345

 

 

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