Barrett Byrd Associates

Colas’ work in Portsmouth still stands alone as the only road maintenance PFI under way – and is a beacon of success judging by the work done and condition of the city’s roads.

Production figures for road resurfacing and therefore the general condition of the UK’s highways are continuing downwards with maintenance budgets, but in Portsmouth the story is very different. In the city location of the first – and still only – road maintenance PFI, Colas has resurfaced 730,000m² of carriageway and 200,000m² of footway and replaced 6,300 street lights.

Most of that has been done during the two and a half years to the end of July this year and amounts to far more than many larger city and county authorities can hope to achieve in two years. The condition of Portsmouth’s highway network has improved as expected and so far the private finance model is being proven to work.

Ensign (a 50/50 partnership of Colas UK and French parent Colas SA) is now into its fourth year of managing and maintaining Portsmouth City Council’s (PCC) road network. The Colas team providing the service on the ground is about half way through a £60M core investment programme of capital improvement work.

According to Ensign Managing Director Brian Hicks, the first 12 months of the contract were spent getting operations up and running – and clearing a huge backlog of pothole repairs. From the start, on 31 January 2005, Colas sent out its gangs of operatives with the instruction to “fill any defect and correct any broken pavement slab”. Portsmouth’s local press ran pictures that day showing Colas’ fleet of maintenance vehicles moving en masse into the city along the A27.

“We are here for 25 years and have to maintain a good partnership and be proactive instead of reactive,” Hicks says. “The work is lifting the whole city image and giving a feel good factor. Response from the local press has been positive, although that is not to say we will not make mistakes or have not disrupted traffic.

“It was a struggle to clear the backlog during those first few months and we have carried out an enormous amount of work since. Third party claims are down 40% and a MORI poll has shown a 22% improvement in public satisfaction. Not many local authorities have two surfacing teams working continuously with a third added during the summer,” says Hicks.

Colas is rebuilding and resurfacing Portsmouth’s primary, secondary and tertiary roads, as well as capital maintenance of street lights, furniture and drainage. A ‘deep cleanse’ process of clearing all street drainage is under way – around 40% of Portsmouth’s gullies were blocked when Colas took over in January 2005 – which has become a ‘total maintenance’ procedure.

Public feedback has shown residents prefer their streets to be closed entirely – with warning – and the whole job done in one go. Each street now gets a letter-drop, cars moved if needed, then street and gully cleaning, road and footway surface repairs and new lighting in a single visit.

“We have learnt that the key is communication – informing the public of what is going to happen and listening to their input,” says Hicks. That includes attending community ward meetings and visiting local schools. Colas is putting in a lot of effort to build relationships with communities it is serving.

“About 80% of our staff are local people and the kids are our future engineers and surveyors,” says Colas Business Manager for Portsmouth Graham Mook. “We are a service provider here, planning and programming all stats and highway work in the city, so links to communities through the ward meetings are vital.”

In return for its efforts and investment, Colas is receiving payment calculated from a combination of factors. Usage Payment makes up 10% – based on the number of vehicles over 6.2m long using the city’s main roads, but fixed at the end of the core investment period. The rest comes from Availability Payment (AP). This started at 65% and increases in line with a Network Condition Index (NCI).

Every six months, visual and machine surveys of the network – audited by Owen Williams – measure whether the NCI has stepped up in accord with the repayment model.

“This contract is output driven. We cannot miss a step up because it could not be allowed in the financial modelling. The aim is to get a Core Investment Completion Certificate in August 2009 and we are in line with the programme and step ups,” says Hicks.

The AP is weighted to favour maintenance of Portsmouth’s principal roads. All roads are being surveyed – tertiary roads by visual condition only and secondary by visual and measured skid resistance. Primary roads though, receive these plus a structural rating of Pavement Condition Index, which has more scope for improvement in the model and includes a measure of residual life.

Colas’ bid relied on its proposal to develop a new way of measuring residual life as an alternative to the conventional Pandef method, which is largely unreliable for measuring asphalt on concrete – the structure of much of Portsmouth’s roads. The alternative is being developed by Colas SA in France (see box), which is also performing the principal network pavement designs of asphalt base, binder and surface courses. Colas UK is designing the rest.

“We looked at every section of road when developing the technical model,” says Graham Mook. “Our approach is to make the new road and footway surfaces last as long as possible and we have to meet our immediate targets. The selection criteria for our three-month detailed programmes of work are based on the surveys and target the roads in the poorest state first.”

That means less influence on work for Portsmouth’s councillors, but Colas is working in 14 different wards and their views are heard, says Mook. “We frequently speak to the councillors at an informal level, but the city talks to them formally, which is the best approach. They cannot tell the city officers what to do, but councillors have plenty of opportunity for input at ward meetings and through our operational meetings with PCC.”

The city council has adjusted with the PFI arrangement, says Brian Hicks. Colas’ contract is to replace like for like, with good quality materials. Changes to road layouts are at additional cost. “But PCC can play a smart game now,” Hicks says, “by asking for changes to be made at little extra cost to items such as kerbs, white lining and signing, which we are replacing anyway.”

“This is an important change for PCC,” says Mook. “They have got to be there with an instruction in time and at first they were not used to the speed we were working at, but now they are, and making use of opportunities to work closely with us and get extra value from individual schemes.”

PCC can also sit easily with the knowledge that risk is now with Colas, which has all the incentive it needs to get things right first time. Design, construction and selection of materials are all being done with an eye on maintenance costs and Colas has the network management role under the Traffic Management Act (the ‘Traffic Officer’ is PCC’s Head of Transport & Street Management Charlie Stunell).

“The TM Act could have been a contract stopper when we were bidding because we were told we had to take responsibility without knowing what’s involved and what was going to be in it. But we have since worked closely with the Portsmouth and southern area utilities,” says Hicks.

“We have delayed some schemes to occur after the utilities have done their work and coordinated NTL and BT work together. It is very frustrating that some new carriageway has been dug up through emergency work but we have no control over that. The Act is helping. We will soon be able to put a banning order on utility works in the carriageway for three years after resurfacing.”

Box

Colas SA’s method of measuring the residual life of a pavement is an analytical software tool based on measured deflections, traffic data and the physical model and characteristics of the pavement. It has been termed the Rational Design Approach (RDA) and is currently being verified for compliance by Portsmouth City Council’s advisor Mott MacDonald.

“The RDA is effectively a very detailed measure of what exactly was built in comparison to the design,” says Colas SA’s Highways Manager Eric Brangier. “It uses a lot more input and is therefore more detailed and reliable than Pandef. We hope to have it ready for introduction in 2009. Meanwhile, we have an allowance in the contract for Pandef inaccuracy and we are exceeding our targets at the moment so we are in a comfort zone.”

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