Yotta’s Horizons highway asset management platform has played a crucial role in securing millions of pounds of investment for East Sussex County Council’s road network. By presenting a number of different scenarios to the Council’s Cabinet, created using Horizons Analysis, the impact on the highway network condition of different funding levels was clearly demonstrated. This information allowed Councillors to agree to settle an additional £10 million of investment in unclassified roads in addition to £15 million per annum to maintain the Council’s classified network. East Sussex County Council also secured £2.65 million from the Department for Transport to repair damage to the road network caused by severe winter weather.
The scenario modelling undertaken using Horizons analysis considered the funding levels required across all aspects of East Sussex County Council’s 2,000 miles of roads. Three options were presented including capital investment required to maintain the current condition of A, B, C and unclassified roads, investment required to achieve industry top quartile for all roads and funding levels required to maintain condition of A, B and C roads and improve the condition of unclassified roads to a similar level.
“Using Horizons we were able to create a number of detailed investment / performance options and present them to the Cabinet in a clear, precise and easy to understand way,” commented Chris Dyer, Highway Asset Manager at East Sussex County Council. “Based on the evidence of the Horizons modelling and the projected effect of additional funding on performance, Cabinet Members agreed to invest an additional £10 million in unclassified roads over two years to bring this part of the highway network into line with other road types.”
“Work is already well under way to achieve this improvement,” concluded Dyer, “with year one of the targeted maintenance already delivered we have achieved improved performance on the unclassified and principal network whilst maintaining the condition of non-principal roads.”
The additional funding allocated by Council and the award from the Department of Transport build on existing allocated funding including £6.5 million for the maintenance and improvement of pavements and highway drainage and £2.25 million approved for pothole repairs. In total the County Council has invested more than £100 million in East Sussex’s roads since 2010.
Chris Dyer, Highway Asset Manager at East Sussex County Council, will also be presenting a session on Better Asset Management, and the role Horizons plays in East Sussex County Council’s strategy for roads and highways maintenance at the Future Highways 2015 conference which takes place on 11th June at the Kia Oval, London. For further information, please visit http://landor.co.uk/futurehighways/conference.php
