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Highways Asset Management Plan

Published: 14/05/2021

Flintshire’s Cabinet Members will be asked to note a review of the Highway Asset Management Plan (HAMP) when they meet on 18 May.

The highway network is the highest valued infrastructure asset owned by the Council, with the carriageway and footway asset alone valued in excess of £1 billion. The safe and usable condition of the network is essential in maintaining economic and social connectivity, both within Flintshire and with the wider region. 

The Council has a statutory duty to maintain all adopted highways, including highway structures within the County (Trunk Roads not included) and the HAMP provides the principles for managing this important network which are:

• A systematic approach to maintenance that takes a long term maintenance approach.

• Maximising benefits by balancing competing demands across individual asset types.

• Allocation of resources based on assessed need and a risk based approach to funding allocation.

• Explicit consideration of public expectations.

However, it needs to be recognised that the condition of the highway network will naturally continue to deteriorate each year and without sufficient annual investment the overall condition of the network will decline.

Flintshire County Council’s Chief Officer for Streetscene and Transportation, Steve Jones, said:

“Ideally the authority would like to achieve a continuation of the current condition level – this alone requires a capital investment in excess of £3.2m per year. This does not take into account the deteriorating condition of other assets such footways, structures and the street lighting network.

“The majority of the available funding therefore has to be allocated to maintaining the carriageways.  The Council operates an approved inspection regime for all assets which ensures that the funding allocated to each element is sufficient to ensure the asset is safe and fit for purpose and thus ensures we comply with our statutory requirement to maintain the network.”

Cabinet members will also be asked to approve a update to the Policy for Highway and Car Park Safety Inspections, Intervention Criteria and Response Times to include a revised approached to highway structures inspections.  This update will provide clarity to the categorisation of Flintshire’s highway structure assets, along with the frequency and type of inspections allocated for each asset category. The proposals all align with the national guidelines and maintenance advice.