Management Summary

1. Management Summary

1.1 Background

Street and highway works are a complex business with a very large number of stakeholders. Successive pieces of primary and secondary legislation have been introduced together with information systems with varying degrees of success in making activities in the street more safe and efficient, and, importantly, better co-ordinated.

However, the perception of the public, which is recognised at ministerial level, is that more can be done to reduce the impact of the disruption caused as a result of street and highway works.

1.2 Project Brief

The brief for this project focuses on the need to review the electronic systems that may potentially be employed to achieve the objective of reduced disruption to road users. This study includes a close examination of business issues because history shows that no system can be effective or sustainable unless it is founded on sound business practices and procedures.

1.3 Major Findings

This report's findings are based upon a consultation process undertaken with a representative cross-section of stakeholders from the street and highway works environment, private sector, local government and central government, as well as data and service providers.

It is concluded that a National Framework must be established for co-ordinating the setting of standards and for improving the flow of information to assist in achieving the objective of reducing disruption. This recommendation is based on the evidence of previous attempts to address these issues and our conviction that this is a feasible mechanism that will be supported by the various stakeholders concerned.

In summary the key conclusions and recommendations are:

• A centrally funded National Framework Co-ordinating Team (NFCT) should be established to drive forward the National Framework
• Performance by stakeholders varies significantly and a National Framework Co-ordinating Team will provide the framework for acceptable standards to be defined and enforced.
• Local Highway Authorities (LHAs) are not coping with the volume of notices received from Utilities and need assistance to fulfil their coordination role.
• A high proportion of the notices received give less than 24 hours warning of a proposal to excavate, virtually eliminating any possibility of co-ordination of street and highway works.
• The noticing regime needs to be simplified to reduce the volume of notices created.
• LHAs need to include their own highway works in the noticing regime to facilitate co-ordination.
• Asset location records should be made available electronically and will benefit all stakeholders.
• The National Street Gazetteer specification is widely known to have shortcomings and is arguably not fit for all the purposes to which it is now being put. It needs to be changed and a review is underway separately which needs to be co-ordinated with other parallel initiatives (e.g. NLPG, ITN).
• An opportunity exists to establish an electronic information point where members of the public will be able to obtain information on related street and highway works activity.
• Better co-ordination of street and highway works will be helped by additional systems.
• The strategy of e-Government will be furthered by adopting the report recommendations.

1.4 Structure of Report

This is a large and complex report. It has been structured to emphasise the main conclusions of the Research Study, to discuss major topic areas and to present important evidence to support the conclusions.

• Section 1 - Management Summary presents the key finding of the Study and describes the structure of the Report.
• Section 2 - Introduction includes the terms of reference, definitions and provides general information about the conduct of the study.
• Section 3 - Existing Business Context describes the background and some of the history of the street and highway works industry.
• Section 4 - National Framework and Coordination describes the key recommendations of the Study.
• Sections 5 to 9 describe other important areas of the Study and its recommendations:
• • Noticing
  • Asset Location
  • Data and Standards
  • Location Referencing
  • Systems and Standards
• Section 10 - Summary of Findings summarises findings by topic and discusses timescales.
• Section 11 - Proposed Technical Architecture outlines a technical architecture to support the proposed National Framework.
• Section 12 - Proposed Solution For A National Framework discusses how the proposed technical architecture will work in practice.
• Annexes A to E contain detailed information to support the findings that has been assembled during the course of the study.
• Annex F contains a Chart of Recommendations.
• Annex G contains detailed information about relevant standards.