Shropshire Star

Rethink begins on Shropshire road repair policy

Shropshire Council has launched a consultation on planned changes to its skidding resistance policy and its highway safety inspection manual.

Published

The six-week consultation runs until January 20.

The main purpose of the proposed changes is to bring the council’s policies in line with the majority of other highways authorities, and better align risk policies with external advice, resources and risk management. A number of changes to remove redundant categories and clarify roles and responsibilities are also proposed.

The objective of Shropshire’s skidding resistance policy is to control the risk of skidding incidents on a defined network of major roads by the provision of a level of wet road skid resistance that is appropriate for each location. The policy sets out every aspect of how wet road skid resistance is managed.

Defect

It’s proposed that an updated policy is prepared based on available good practice from Highways England. The proposed updated skidding resistance policy will set a consistent level of risk of wet road skid accidents across the major roads in Shropshire.

The current highway safety inspection manual includes a minimum investigatory level of 25mm for defects on the carriageways. Concerns have been raised that an investigatory level of 25mm as set out in the current policy may be difficult to discern from a slow-moving vehicle leading to a failure to record some defects.

It’s proposed to instead set the minimum investigatory level for a defect on a carriageway to 40mm.

Steve Davenport, Cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “These proposed changes would bring the council’s policies in line with the majority of other highways authorities, and better align our risk policies with external advice, resources and risk management. We ask people to take a close look at our proposals and tell us what they think.”

To comment on these proposals, go to shropshire.gov.uk/get-involved