Inspections

Highways inspections are carried out to ascertain where maintenance is required and how urgently. Coarse Visual Inspections are used in the identification and prioritisation of all planned works.

Safety Inspections are carried out for the recording of both the presence and absence of defects in the highway that may present an imminent risk to the public.

Coarse Visual Inspections

CVI surveys are carried out each year on all A,B and C class roads, in addition to 50% of the Unclassifieds. This equates to an annual survey length of some 2955km out of a total network length of 3963km. All surveys are carried out by accredited in-house inspectors in accordance with the guidance set out in UKPMS user manual – Volume 2 "Visual Data Collection for UKPMS".

As part of the survey, the inspection team assesses not only the condition of the carriageway but also all footways, cycle tracks, kerbs and paved verges adjacent to the road. All data collected is loaded into UKPMS then processed to produce Condition Indices and indicative treatments with associated costs.

Safety Inspections

The Highway Maintenance Plan defines the scope of a "safety defect" which is to be made safe within 24 hours. Any other defects which do not represent an immediate risk to the road user are recorded and dealt with at the discretion of the Highways Officer dependant upon his assessment of the severity of the defect.

The frequency of inspections are as listed below: