Street works

The Street works section provides a wide range of information on all aspects of works to roads carried out by "undertakers" (which for the most part means public utilities such as electricity, gas, telecommunications and water companies), or their contractors. These works are subject to the provisions of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 , under which a utility is required to inform the relevant street authority (normally the local authority) of any street works which it is carrying out on their roads. In turn, the street authority are obliged to keep a register of works in their area, including their own highway works. Queries about specific works should be directed to the utility concerned or the relevant street authority.

Whilst the information on this part of the website covers the situation in England it does not aim to describe the situation in other parts of the United Kingdom. In Great Britain, street works policy has been a 'devolved' issue since July 1999, for which responsibility in Scotland and Wales lies with the Scottish Executive and the National Assembly for Wales respectively. The separate but parallel legislation in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Road Service Headquarters, Department for Regional Development.

Please note: Intelligent Addressing are now the concessionaire for the National Street Gazeteer. Anyone who has a password to access the NSG should contact Intelligent Addressing at NSG@intelligent-addressing.co.uk immediately so they can issue the authority/undertaker with a new password.

Permit scheme – decision making and development

This short guidance note on Permit Schemes is aimed at English local highway authorities, and provides tips and suggestions on scheme development and application practicalities. It reflects experience and lessons learned during the development and approval of the first schemes, and should be read in conjunction with, other Department for Transport (DfT) guidance documents giving more detailed advice.

Published:: 25 January 2010

Street works qualifications: how to qualify, register and re-register

New Street Works Qualifications Regulations come into force on 10th April 2010. These regulations introduce the requirement that supervisors and operatives must be reassessed every five years to confirm that they are still competent before they can re-register and continue to carry out street works. Hence the purpose of this guidance note is to help utility companies, their contractors, local authorities and training providers better understand how the new regulations will affect them.

Published:: 12 November 2009

Street Works Summit Report and Action Plan

This is the report on the Street Works Summit held on Thursday 15th October 2009 at Aston University, Birmingham and the Action Plan to tackle the problems caused by street works that has since been developed.

Published:: 22 December 2009

Permit fees guidance (668 kb)

Non-statutory guidance to assist local authorities with calculating permit costs and the overall permit scheme costs in relation to utilities, and permit fees.

Published:: 23 July 2008

Permit Fees Guidance Cost Matrix (433 kb)

These tables have been provided to assist with calculating individual permit costs and the overall permit scheme costs in relation to utlities, and permit fees.

Published:: 23 July 2008

Statutory Guidance for operating Permit Schemes (343 kb)

Statutory Guidance issued by the Secretary of State for Transport to be followed by local highway authorities when preparing applications to operate permit schemes.

Published:: 31 March 2008

Codes of practice

Brief introductions to each code.

Regulations

Brief details of the Regulations.

Orders

Brief details of Regulations.

Best Practice

This document is a quick user-friendly guide for site operatives and supervisors involved with reinstatements of openings in highways and provides practical advice to assist good workmanship and promote the highest standards.

Street Works Register

An Internet based electronic data interchange for undertakers notifying highway authorities of street works in their area.

Questions and answers from the street work seminars

This document contains some questions and answers on the new street works legislation. This work stems from queries raised in the street work seminars that departmental speakers spoke at that were held in late 2007.

Published:: 03 June 2008

Street works seminar presentations

In winter 2007 Departmental speakers made a number of presentations at a series of street work seminars sponsored by HAUC(UK). Below is a copy of those presentations. These presentations should help further explain the changes to the street works legislative framework. Please note that these presentations will be updated in late December to reflect any changes in the presentations as a result of feedback received.

Information systems for street and highway works

Letter regarding the report on use of information technology in aspects of management of highway and street works.

Working Together: A good practice guide to managing works on the street (1 Mb)

The Guide shares good practice for co-ordinating and managing works on the street. It gives examples of how promoters can carry out works with the least disruption to highway users, frontages, and local communities, to improve and maintain the road network.