Praise for Scottish maintenance performance

An independent annual report into the maintenance of Scotland’s trunk roads and motorways has found that operating companies are maintaining their strong performance and continuing to improve services.

 

The detailed report is published by engineering consultant Halcrow, who as “PAGplus”, leads the Performance Audit Group commission for Transport Scotland.

Halcrow’s expert team of engineers, supported by accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, carried out almost 100 detailed audits and monitoring activities of operating companies Amey, BEAR and Scotland TranServ in 2010/11, as well as visiting over 1,000 road maintenance sites.

Bruce Lunn, Halcrow’s commission manager for PAGplus said: “Our team travelled across Scotland throughout the year to visit routes, roadworks and depots, as well as monitoring the contractors’ management systems, to assess performance in maintaining these vital roads.

"Our report examines almost 200 areas of performance and more than 95% were found to be excellent, good or fair.”

Acknowledging the difficulties caused by the severe winter, the report notes particularly strong performance in network availability, inspecting structures, winter readiness and decision making, and patching carriageways to address the effects of winter, and the operating companies performed well in ensuring the network remained safe until carriageway defects were permanently repaired.