Information relating to the roadworks at Junction 4 on the M8: EIR release

Information requested

You asked: 

‘I wish to complain about the roadworks at Junction 4 on the M8, In order for me to make a proper and formal complaint I will need the following information.

1. A copy of the report as to why the work needs to be done, a copy of the original report from the person or complaint who carried it out would be best.
2. A copy of the tender process and information as to why this vendor was picked
3. A copy of the RAMS and timescales produced by the vendor.’

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.

I have numbered your request for ease of reference.

1. Material Testing Results, which can be viewed in Annex A to this response, highlighted the need for concrete repair works to the substructure. These defects are all typically caused by water and road salts penetrating through the structure. In advance of completing the necessary concrete repairs to the substructure, the water penetration through the structure needed to be initially eliminated. The recent works to the two structures at M8 Junction 4 was therefore planned to mitigate the water ingress into the sub-structure and included joint works, waterproofing and a new concrete slab in the central reservation.

2. Amey are the Operating Company for the SE unit, managing and maintaining the Trunk Road Network on behalf of Transport Scotland.  This contract has been in place since August 2014 and Amey were selected as they provided the most economically advantageous tender. This contract can be accessed via the following link: https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/35897/se-combined.pdf  The works at M8 Junction 4 were awarded to Amey as of right through this contract and they are the Principal Conctractor (PC) for these specific works. The following link shows the tender to manage and maintain the South East Scotland Unit, which was advertised on the Public Contract Scotland website -https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUL180407.

3. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

RAMS for these works are attached at Annex B. The planned timescale for these works were 16 September until Monday 9 December 2019. The works were completed ahead of schedule on 27 November 2019. The following link shows details of the scheme on the Amey website - https://setrunkroads.co.uk/m8/m8-junction-4-whitburn-bridge/.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI/19/02408 - Annex A

File type

169 page PDF

File size

8.7 MB

FOI/19/02408 - Annex B

File type

152 page PDF

File size

5.2 MB