Our Resilient Highway Network is defined as the portion of our highway network that is vital to maintaining economic activity and access to key services during:

• extreme weather emergencies
• other major incidents such as industrial action or other local risks

The purpose of defining this network is to identify the most important routes and associated highway assets. This will ensure that our defined Resilient Highway Network is less prone to failure and improve the county’s resilience to extreme weather events, industrial action and major incidents. We maintain and treat the Resilient Network as a priority in the event of such incidents and focus our resources on keeping roads open for use, where practicable.

Short term risks

The greatest short term risks to the highway network availability are:

• snow
• ice
• flooding

During extreme weather, we focus our resources on de-icing and clearing snow from the Primary and Secondary gritting routes. These roads are given priority in order to maintain economic activity and access to the strategic network, key locations, centres of population and services such as hospitals and crematoria. It is the Primary and Secondary gritting routes that define the Resilient Network.

More information on gritting routes can be found here: Gritting, Ice and Snow.

Maintenance

The Resilient Network and the identified critical assets on these routes such as bridges and other structures, are included in the maintenance regimes of all highway assets. These may, depending on the asset, lead to:

• additional maintenance interventions to ensure the asset continues to function (for example, an increased drainage cleansing frequency)
• more maintenance resource to help prevent the deterioration of the asset
• fast tracking any works already in the programme to reduce the risk of failure of the asset

We have robust systems in place to respond effectively to severe weather emergencies which is are documented in our Highways Emergency and Resilient Network Plan.

Partnerships

To ensure that our approach to managing a Resilient Network is effective and cohesive, we have put a framework in place for its delivery comprising the following partnership groups:

• Local Resilience Forum
• Worcestershire Emergency Planning Tactical Control group
• Worcestershire Severe Weather group
• Highway Flood Adaptation Programme Board

The Resilient Network is reviewed annually as part of the winter service operations review process and is updated after any relevant event. 

If you have any queries about the Resilient Network, please: contact us.