South West Highwayalliance

South West HighwayAlliance

End of Year Report 2014/15

Chairman’s Introduction

The South West Highway Alliance (SWHA) is a partnership of 15 highway authorities in the south west of England that have formally agreed to work collaboratively to deliver more efficient highway services. It was formally launched at the DfT/HMEP roadshow in Exeter on the 7th February 2014. This followed the appointment of a half-time alliance manager in January 2014, the signing of the alliance agreement by all 15 authorities late in summer 2013, and considerable preparatory work during 2012 and 2013.

The south west has a long history of local collaboration between neighbouring authorities, and regionally in respect to specific service areas, but the level of collaboration envisaged for the alliance represented a significant step change in approach. Prior to the establishment of the alliance, only one contract was available to all authorities in the SW; Cornwall’s highway inspection contract with WDM. One of the early principles proposed by the Alliance was that authorities should begin to make any new contracts available to other alliance members where practical, to assist with the alignment of procurement timetables and future development of SWHA contracts.

The 2014/15 business plan set out an ambitious programme of projects, many of which were anticipated to be progressed over several financial years, with a number driven by contract expiry opportunities. A professional services contract was developed by Somerset County Council, and is one of a suite of contracts that they have established and made available to SWHA members over the last year. Work by Cornwall on the procurement of a Highway Asset Management System is at an advanced stage and Devon and Somerset’s collaboration on renewal of their term maintenance contracts has progressed steadily throughout the year.

Work with the regional service area groups has begun to achieve a greater focus on task and finish activities, and a number of groups are proactively developing alliance projects that fit well with their specific service area. Many groups are making good use of the South West Councils’ secure webspaces to share information and store meeting minutes. A public facing SWHA website has been developed and provides high-level information about the alliance, contracts open to alliance members and examples of good practice found in the south west.

The changes announced this year by the Department for Transport with regards to future funding allocations has made it an essential requirement that local authorities are able to demonstrate collaborative working. Adoption of the asset management strategies and key programmes of work as identified by the Highways Maintenance Efficiency Programme’s work over the last few years has also now become the leading strands of evidence base authorities will need to demonstrate in order to justify their funding allocations. As we move into 2015/16 the role of the SW Highways Alliance in seeking efficiencies from collaboration and assisting member authorities to maximise their potential funding allocations has become critical.

Our first year has been successful in no small part because of the commitment, dedication and belief by south west authorities that working collaboratively is the best way forward.

Contents

1. Introduction

1. Progress with Projects

1. Progress with Groups

1. Communication

1. Conclusion

South West Highway Alliance End of Year Report 2014/15

1. Introduction

2014/15 was the first full year of operation of the South West Highway Alliance (SWHA), following appointment of a part-time Alliance Manager in January 2014 and the formal launch of the Allianceat the HMEP/DfT roadshow in Exeter in February 2014. The first year was preceded by considerable work to establish governance arrangements for the alliance and engage the 15 local Highway Authorities in signing up to the initiative.

During the establishment of the alliance, an agreement was made amongst authorities signing up that, wherever possible, new contracts would be made available to other authorities in the South West, in order to facilitate future collaborative procurement projects. A summary of those contracts available to other authorities in the SW is presented in Appendix 1.

Governance

The SWHA has a two-tier governance structure, with a programme board, mainly formed of highways service managers, making day to day decisions on the alliance’s programme of activities; and an executive board making strategic decisions on the direction of the alliance. The programme board members are:

The programme board chair for 2014/15 was Scott Tompkins, and Mark King is the regional HMEP advocate.

The executive board is the South West ADEPT directors group, which, in addition to local authority directors, comprises representatives of central government organisations such as the HA, DCLG, HCA and EA. This is currently chaired by Heather Barnes from Devon County Council.

Devon County Council is the host authority for the alliance, employing the Alliance Manager and acting as the banker for SWHA transactions.

Resources

The Alliance has modest financial and human resources at its disposal, and is able to draw on a network of highway service related regional groups to develop specific projects. The membership fees paid by each authority contribute to a total annual income of £52,500. Additional income is generated from fees paid for accessing contracts. Fixed annual outgoings are in the region of £36,000 per annum, covering the Alliance Manager’s salary & travel costs, facilitation of group meetings and website running costs. The SWHA has reserves of approximately £45,000.

2014/15 Business Plan

The original business case for the establishment of the alliance highlighted a number of potential workstreams for development by the SWHA. One of the programme board’s first activities in 2014/15 was reviewing and refining the long list of potential projects into a deliverable business plan for the year ahead. Many of the projects identified were expected to span several years, and it was decided that including medium and longer term projects in the plan would be an appropriate approach:

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South West Highway Alliance End of Year Report 2014/15

1. Progress with projects

Procurement

Contract performance monitoring and evaluation framework

Development of this workstream has been limited during 2014/15, pending establishment of SWHA contracts. Considerable progress has been made by Bristol on the development of a Contracts Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, which it is envisaged will form the basis for future monitoring of SWHA contracts.

Following HMEP peer review advice, Bristol undertook extensive internal and external research, and have developed a system which ensure compliance with possible audits e.g. Health & Safety, Innovation & Creativity, Equality & Diversity; and provides an overview of contract performance. The monitoring framework was initially successfully piloted on nine contracts and is now being expanded to cover all BristolCity transport contracts.

Professional Services

Somerset County Council’s Engineering Consultancy Contract was let in summer 2014. This single-supplier, top up contract is intended to provide Somerset and Dorset County Council with engineering consultancy services for the next 9 years, based on their estimated throughput values. Parsons Brinckerhoff are the main contractor, with JMP and Royal Haskoning providing specialist sub-contractor services. The services available through this contract are:

a)Transportation Studies (transport assessments, junction modelling multi-modal modelling and economic appraisal)

b)Design (including surveys), contract preparation and construction supervision of highway and transport improvement and maintenance schemes.

c)Design contract preparation and construction supervision of traffic engineering schemes, including sign design, traffic regulation orders,

d)Highway safety studies, design of safety improvements and undertaking Road Safety Audits.

f)Design, of Traffic Regulation Orders and associated consultation.

g)Inspection, design, contract preparation and construction supervision of highway structures (new build, strengthening, refurbishment and maintenance)

h)Railway structures inspections, assessment and design.

i)Coastal structures inspections, assessment and design.

j)Surface water drainage, hydrological modelling and associated design. Flood modelling and surface water management plans.

k)CDM Co-ordinator and designer roles, and related health and safety management, auditing and advice

l)Construction management including contract preparation, quantity surveying and works supervision.

m)Checking and site monitoring of third-party highway improvement scheme designs.

n)Design, contract preparation and construction supervision of Intelligent Transport Systems, traffic signal and traffic signing improvement and maintenance schemes.

o)Coastal defence modelling assessment and design

p)Geotechnical design and advice.

q)Topographical surveys.

r)Public consultation on scheme proposals.

s)Design, contract preparation and construction supervision of street lighting, and other highway electrical installations improvement and maintenance schemes

t)Electrical and mechanical engineering support to multi disciplinary projects

u)Traffic noise and vibration (surveys, studies and advice)

v)Contaminated land assessment and site remediation design

w)Preparation and supervision of environmental studies, including landscape design and assessment

x)Transportation data collection

y)Building structures (structural surveys, design and checking)

z)Industrial buildings design

aa)Management Consultancy

bb)Checking and advising on slope stability

cc)Preparation of Major Scheme Business Cases.

dd)Project Management.

The contract is available to all SW authorities, and is accessed via a collaboration agreement with Somerset County Council. Access fees are charged at either a £2,500 lump sum + 2.5% of throughput, or 5% of throughput. 75% of the fees collected are retained by Somerset County Council, to help recover procurement costs, and 25% of the fees are passed to the alliance to contribute towards the costs of future collaborative projects.

The Engineering Consultancy Contract is already being used by a number of authorities, with East Devon, Devon, Gloucestershire, Plymouth and Swindon amongst those signed up to access the contract. Gloucestershire is using the contract to assist with the project management of a major regeneration project in the Forest of Dean near Cinderford. The work involves close liaison between the Homes and Communities Agency and Forest of Dean District Council on the planning and construction of a new spine road. Devon County Council have found the contract very quick and easy to use, with arrangements for use set up through a short exchange of emails. Their experience is that the contract provides an excellent top up service if other procurement methods are not available, and Devon intends to continueusing this on different consultancy work.

A second Somerset County Council contract providing specific transport planning professional services was let in February 2015. The “Conceptual Design and Development of Non-Engineered Solutions in Travel & Transportation” four year transport planning framework consists of five lots:

Lot1 – Urban landscape, legibility design, way-finding, human factors

Lot2 – Community involvement with and stakeholder engagement around travel and transportation

Lot3 – Active travel

Lot4 – Development of travel plans, travel planning studies, implementation and monitoring

Lot5 – Master planning: master planning related to transport and highways.

Nine contractors are available through this contract as indicated below:

These contractors can be accessed by all SWHA authorities. Again, the framework is accessed via a collaboration agreement with Somerset County Council. Access fees are charged at either a £2,500 lump sum + 2.5% of throughput, or 5% of throughput, with 75% the fees retained by Somerset County Council, and 25% of the fees are passed to the alliance.

Gloucestershire County Council and Bristol City Council are keen to develop a different type of professional services contract to the top-up contract, and it is anticipated that further collaborative work will be undertaken during 2015/16, leading to the development of additional professional services products.

Major SchemesMedium Schemes

During the course of 2014/15, work has commenced on the development of a medium/major schemes framework. The potential pipeline of work arising from the Local Growth Fund allocations has been identified and considered against existing contractual arrangements to determine the potential scale of and interest in use of a framework. Documentation used in the Midlands HighwayAlliance framework has been provided to the SWHA to assist with development. Somerset County Council have secured internal approvals to lead on the procurement of this framework, and this is expected to be a major piece of work in 2015/16.

Highway Condition Surveys

Cornwall Council’s Highways Condition Surveys was let in April 2012 and is a five year contract with the option of extending by two years. It is available to all SWHA members, and all members, with the exception of Wiltshire, are making use of the contract. Access fess of 2.50% of throughput are applied to use of the contract.

Salt

The South West Winter Service group undertook initial benchmarking in 2014/15 to explore opportunities for collaboration on salt procurement. Five authorities currently procure salt on a joint basis (Dorset, Bournemouth, Poole, Gloucestershire, Swindon), with a further two authorities procuring salt to similar timescales to this consortium (3 years). There appears to be limited opportunity or appetite for work on collaborative procurement of salt in the next two years.

Weather forecasting

Initial benchmarking work on weather forecasting procurement by the Winter Service Group suggests that there may be greater opportunity and appetite for collaborating on future procurement. However, the value of current contracts (£10-20k pa) falls below the OJEU services threshold for many authorities, so the next stage in this work will be to explore whether it is desirable to work towards a joint contract, or limit collaboration to sharing development of contract documents.

LED street lighting & maintenance

Initial, exploratory work to ascertain the potential appetite for collaboration on street lighting procurement activities revealed limited opportunity for developing this as an alliance project. However, a handful of authorities (Gloucestershire, Poole, Somerset and South Gloucestershire) are working to similar timescales and collaborating on documentation.

Term Maintenance Contract

Both Somerset County Council and Devon County Council have term maintenance contracts which expire in April 2017. Plymouth, Bristol, BANES and North Somerset have expressed interest in being able to access any emerging contracts, should a framework approach be taken.

In readiness for going to the market, considerable joint work has already been undertaken between SCC and DCC, and although SCC have decided the future model for delivery of services would include a TMC component, DCC is yet to make a decision on their future model, with three options (including TMC) still being investigated. However this has not stopped the Authorities working together on the preparation of some of the contract documents, and providing feedback to HMEP on the production of their Conditions of Contract and Schedule of Rates.

An interim contract that provides similar services was let by Somerset County Council in summer 2014. Their“Repair and Resilience” contract is a four year framework contract split into five lots:

Lot 1 – Surface Dressing

Lot 2 – Resurfacing

Lot 3 – Drainage, Haunching, and Footways

Lot 4 – Patching

Lot 5 – Specialist Surface Treatment

The suppliers available for each lot and authority areas are provided in the following tables:

As with the Engineering Consultancy Contract, this framework is accessed via a collaboration agreement with Somerset County Council. Access fees are charged at either a £2,500 lump sum + 2.5% of throughput, or 5% of throughput. Three quarters of the fees collected are retained by Somerset County Council, to help recover procurement costs, and a quarter of the fees are passed to the alliance to contribute towards the costs of future collaborative projects.

Policy

Highway safety inspections