Roads to include maintenance

Contractors involved in early contractor involvement (ECI) road schemes will be expected to consider maintenance more when bidding and designing contracts.
The news follows concerns expressed by some maintenance contractors that not enough attention is being paid to maintenance in ECI schemes. They believe this lack of attention could lead to day-to-day problems to the maintenance contractor responsible for that area.
One such major contractor told CJ: "At the moment, it's a real grey area and needs some looking into by the Highways Agency (HA)."
The HA has responded and now contractors will have to factor in the whole-life value of a road project rather than just the immediate construction work.
HA procurement director Steve Rowsell said: "There is already work in place to get a better grip of the maintenance situation. However, more needs to be done and we are looking at a number of things for contractors to adopt. There is an industry fear that an ECI contractor will just focus in on the short-term prospects for the project."
One idea already implemented on projects such as the A43 Silverstone bypass is the earlier involvement of the maintenance contractor.
However, ECI contractors might soon be expected to undergo a new maintenance audit that will ensure there is access to all roads, structures and gulleys and that work can be carried out safely by maintenance workers.
Some ideas will be plucked from the DBFO model in which the winning consortium is responsible for the designated stretch of road over a 25-year period.
The first ECI scheme, Nuttall's £33m A500 Stoke pathfinder project, has yet to start construction following a six-month delay by inspectors following a public inquiry. However, the scheme is still on programme and budget.