Records of tar samples for resurfacing projects for A77: EIR release

Thank you for your request dated 7 October under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs) for the following information:

“Please can I request the following information thru the freedom of information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Item 1, Does Scotland TranServ have records of the tar samples that should have been recorded for the resurfacing projects including projects that come under the description "Patching" on the A77 between Cairnryan and Minishant for the last 24 months. Please can you indicate what organisation carried out the samples/testing and what company/quarry produced the tar.

Item 2, On the A77 between Cairnryan  and Ayr, in the last 24 months, How many of the resurfacing projects including projects that come under patching were put out to tender and how many were they solely carried out by Scotland TranServe.”

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.

Item 1

‘Does Scotland TranServ have records of the tar samples that should have been recorded for the resurfacing projects including projects that come under the description "Patching" on the A77 between Cairnryan and Minishant for the last 24 months?’

Samples of the bituminous materials are taken by the laying contractor in accordance with their Highway Authority Product Approval Scheme (HAPAS) and in accordance with the ‘Specification for Highway Works’ and BS12697 for each and every scheme. Tar samples are taken when identified within the cores. The records in relation to the samples are held by the relevant contractor.

‘Please can you indicate what organisation carried out the samples/testing and what company/quarry produced the tar.’

The laying contractor employs a testing organisation to carry out sampling and testing. Two companies are used in this area – Breedon and Aggregate Industries. 

Please refer to Annex A which is a list of machine patching schemes completed in the past 24 months on the A77 between Cairnryan and Minishant by Scotland Transerv. We understand, following your telephone discussions with my colleague Martin Mclaughlin, that you are interested in machine patching, as opposed to hand patching schemes.

In all cases, these works were completed by Scotland TranServ for Transport Scotland under our term maintenance contract. Scotland TranServ decided to employ a subcontractor to execute the works on their behalf and Annex A, lists the subcontractor that supplied/installed the asphalt, the quarry source for the material and the testing house that undertook the construction phase site sampling and testing as part of normal quality assurance procedures.

Item 2

‘On the A77 between Cairnryan and Ayr, in the last 24 months, How many of the resurfacing projects including projects that come under patching were put out to tender and how many were they solely carried out by Scotland TranServ.’

There were no resurfacing projects, including projects that come under patching, put out to tender during this time period. All were carried out by Scotland TranServ in accordance with their contract of which there was 23 (machine patching schemes). A copy of the contract is available at this link; 

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