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Chapter 1 Overview
1.1 Executive summary
This year has seen continued major investment by the Department in the management and maintenance of the network. Amey and BEAR have risen to the challenge, successfully delivering the Department's record budget for these contracts. This has resulted in a total value of work done in 2004/05 of £161.9m.
Overall, work on the network has been carried out to a good standard, with a strong emphasis on safety. Where the Department and PAG have identified issues, the OCs have addressed these in a professional manner.
Last year PAG raised some concerns about the OCs' application of their management systems. Detailed investigations by PAG this year have shown Amey and BEAR have responded positively, improving the operation of their quality, routine maintenance and contract control management systems ( QMS, RMMS and CCMS). This has improved their management control and contract compliance, as these systems have a major impact on how the OCs deliver their services.
BEAR and Amey continued to demonstrate an overall improvement in their services, reflecting the experience their respective teams have built up in managing the network. Evidence of this improvement can be seen in the continued reduction in default notices issued by the Department. 11 were issued in 2004/05, considerably less than the 24 issued in the previous year.
Performance of Amey and BEAR in the repair of category 1 defects continues to leave room for improvement. There has been a marginal improvement in Amey's performance, whilst BEAR's performance in this aspect of the contract has deteriorated. The Department and PAG will continue to seek improvements from the OCs in 2005/06.
Winter this year saw a marginal increase in precautionary salt spread across the network, with more severe conditions in the north than the south. The number of road closures reduced from 11 last year to four, comparable to the early years of the contracts. Three of the closures were in NW and one in NE. Amey and BEAR continued to broadly deliver their winter maintenance obligations.
BEAR responded well to the major landslips in NW, reacting promptly and professionally to these serious emergencies.
On the M6 DBFO project, Autolink continued to deliver to a high standard, with a strong commitment to service delivery.
1.2 Background
The Scottish trunk road network
The network is divided into four geographical Units (see figure 1), each with its own contract. Each of the four Units, NE, NW, SE and SW, is managed and maintained by an OC. Figure 2 outlines the structure of these arrangements.
Figure 2Structure of arrangements with OCs
The extent of the network
The length of the network in each Unit is shown below in figure 3.
Figure 3Details of network length for each Unit
Unit | Length of network (km) |
|---|
Total route |
|---|
NE | 640 |
|---|
NW | 1,369 |
|---|
SE | 472 |
|---|
SW | 643 |
|---|
Total | 3,124 |
|---|
The network includes a total of 5,711 structures including 2,045 bridges and footbridges.
The contracts
The current 'The Road Ahead' ( TRA) contracts for the management and maintenance of the network were awarded by the Scottish Executive. Work commenced on1 April 2001.
The contracts are framed around the following three objectives:
- Customer service - to enable a 'customer oriented' approach to be further developed in the way roads are managed and maintained.
- Value for money - to achieve the maximum efficiency in the use of the substantial sums of money expended on the maintenance of the network.
- Effective management - to encourage innovation and skilful management to maximise trunk road capacity and achieve the best use of the network.
In addition, the contracts aim to encourage:
- Flexibility - to accommodate changes to the trunk road network.
Contracts for the NE and NW Units were awarded to BEAR Scotland Ltd, a consortium of Babtie Group Ltd, Ennstone Thistle Ltd and Ringway Group Ltd.
Contracts for the SE and SW Units were awarded to Amey Infrastructure Services. Amey is the sole party to these contracts.
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