Transport Scotland planned maintenance schedule M8 junction 31 to 19: EIR release

Information requested

1. What the planned maintenance schedule is for this section of the M8 from Junction 31 to Junction 19 regarding the inspection clearance of waste and larger items from central reservations.

2. What the planned maintenance schedule is for this section of the M8 from Junction 31 to Junction 19 relating to the inspection and maintenacnce of drains and gullies.

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.

There is no planned maintenance schedule for uplifting large objects from the motorway network. If large objects are identified on the M8 they are removed by the Trunk Road Incident Support Service (TRISS) vehicle which patrols the motorways. If a member of the public or Police Scotland notify us of a large object, the control room will dispatch a TRISS or Incident Support Unit vehicle to remove depending on the time of day.

Detailed inspections of drains and gullies are required to be undertaken on, at least, an annual basis. Further to these inspections, Schedule 7 Part 1 – 1.4 of the Operating Company’s Contract https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/35900/sw-combi.pdf sets out the criteria for undertaking safety inspections of the network. Safety inspections are primarily used to identify any category 1 defects that require immediate attention.  In addition to standard weekly safety inspections of the network, in each annual period, the Operating Company must undertake at least two safety inspections either during, or immediately following a period of wet weather to identify areas prone to flooding. There shall be a minimum period of three months between wet weather safety inspections.

The cyclic maintenance of drains and gullies are required to be carried out annually and thereafter as required. In addition to this, gully maintenance improvement works are also undertaken, as required, as part of our ongoing maintenance investment programme.

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