Publication - FOI/EIR release

A77: Defects inspections and repair programme: EIR release

Published: 24 April 2018
Topic: Public sector, Transport

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

FOI reference: FOI/18/00964
Date received: 26 March 2018
Date responded: 23 April 2018

Information requested

Can you provide copies of inspections since Christmas, what defects were noted and associated repair programme for these (for both the A77 and the DBFO company). Who oversees the governance of this and ensure the correct action being taken.

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Transport Scotland's approach to the maintenance of the trunk road network is set out in the 4th Generation Term Contract for management and maintenance of the Scottish Trunk Road Network and our Road Asset Management Plan. Both documents are available online at the following links;

https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/35900/sw-combi.pdf

Schedule 7: Part 1 of the contract provides an overview of inspections,surveys and defect defect categories and response times.
Schedule 7: Part 2: Section 2.7 of the contract provides details of inspections and their frequency during winter.
Schedule 7: Part 6: Section 3 of the contract details the inspections and their frequency for Structures.

https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/road-asset-management-plan-for-scottish-trunk-roads-january-2016

In response to your request, please see Annex A which is the Inspection Defect Report for Scotland Transerv's responsibility for the A77 and M77. This report highlights the defects discovered and when they were repaired.

Connect M77/GSO plc (Connect) is responsible for the maintenance of the M77 between Junction 5 and Junction 8, along with a short length of the A77 from the end of the M77 to a point just south of the A77/ B7038 Meiklewood Junction as part of the M77/GSO DBFO contract.

In relation to the DBFO contract, please see attached Annex B which contains information regarding discovered defects and Annex C contains information on inspections undertaken.

Connect has a major resurfacing scheme programmed for April 2018, which will resurface 28,000m2 of the M77. This programme can be found at Annex D. In addition, please see Annex E which contains details of resurfacing for both Scotland Transerv and Connect which has either been recently completed or due to be completed in the near future as part of the operating companies one year program.

The M77/GSO DBFO project is continuously monitored by our agent, East Renfrewshire Council, who also are the client for this project.

The 4th Generation Term Contract for management and maintenance of the Scottish Trunk Road Network South West is continuously monitored by Transport Scotland and our independent Performance Audit Group (sevice provided by Turner Townsend and PWC).

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