Highways, Street Lighting and Traffic Signal Maintenance

Our Aim

To maintain the Public Highway asset in a cost effective and environmentally responsible manner that meets the councils objectives of service delivery and customer care.

The Highway, Street Lighting and Traffic Signal maintenance team, is dedicated to dealing with all highway maintenance, related enquiries from the general public and you can make a direct call to personnel within this team without the need to involve a call-centre.

The staff who will take your enquiries have in-depth knowledge of the maintenance activities being undertaken on the highway, and have personal contact with all Specialist Engineers, Technicians and Inspectors in the team.

Telephone : 01793 466344     
Street Lighting: 08000150096 (Free phone)
Fax  :     01793 466349    
email: highways@swindon.gov.uk

• Reporting Road, Footway or Cycleway Defect
• Reporting Potholes
• Reporting Damaged Inspection Covers and Frames
• Debris on the Road, Footway or Cycle way
• Glass on the Road, Footway or Cycle way
• Overgrown vegetation
• Ponding and water on the highway
• Rocking Paving Slabs
• Poor Roads and Pavement surfaces
• Vandalism to signs and highway equipment
• Any other enquiries concerning maintenance

Pavements

Highway, Street Lighting and Traffic Signal Maintenance is responsible for approximately 815km of Carriageway and 1500Km of footway along with 72Km of Cycle ways and 63m of Back ways 25000 Street Lights and 200 signal controlled junctions and crossings.

Carriageway, Footway and cycle ways deteriorate with age due to the effects of traffic, weather, Utility activity and other factors.

In order to ensure this deterioration does not result in hazards to the travelling public, regular safety inspections are undertaken on foot by a team of trained, experienced Inspectors.  Defects identified during these inspections are ordered for repair on a priority basis, based on the level of hazard.

The Borough Council undertakes major maintenance works when roads and footways etc have become worn out due to the action of traffic and the weather and when it is not cost effective or desirable to continue with safety patching and repairs.

Major Maintenance schemes which can include removing the old road or footpath and replacing with new materials are undertaken on a priority basis depending on the level of risk to the general public.  Occasionally the priority may be changed if there is a need to coordinate the works with other activities in the highway reducing disruption and inconvenience.

Wherever possible, waste materials are recycled to protect the environment.

Disabled access is also improved whilst major maintenance is undertaken by providing dropped kerbs.

Where possible we try to undertake the maintenance of all street features when carrying out major maintenance such as improving lighting, signage and verges.

Promise 41 says ‘Significant capital investment in highway maintenance will see us improve the condition of roads and footways and reduce the backlog of repairs. We will publish annually a rolling schedule of improvements’ .If you would like to see the work we have completed in 2006/07, please click on the link below.

Highway Maintenance work completed in 2006/07

Potholes

When a pothole is reported, or noted during routine inspections by the Inspector visiting the site, our aim is to have the defect repaired within 24hours or sooner depending on the initial depth of the pothole.

Some surface irregularity is often mistaken for potholes; however, it may be the case where there is insufficient depth in a defect for potholing to be effective.  Alternative remedial action can be programmed where appropriate.

Land Drainage and Flood Defence

Land drainage and flood Defence are generally understood to include the alteration or control of flooding of urban and agricultural land, however this can extend to areas within the rural area of Swindon and other villages.  

Land drainage activities provide no absolute guarantee against flooding as the level of protection provided will depend in each case on the extent and cost of measures.  Certain weather conditions can generate high rainfall over long periods, these may occur only very rarely and to install protection to prevent flooding on these rare occasions is not practical or cost effective.

The Borough Council has land drainage powers, which permit it to carry out certain improvement works, and maintenance to ditches and streams in its area.  The Environment Agency has the overall responsibility to supervise        and inspect works undertaken to all watercourses be they a small ditch or large river.

The Environment Agency is also responsible for larger rivers, called “main rivers“ and also ‘’critical ordinary water courses’’ in our area.

Generally ditches, streams and rivers are the responsibility of the owner of the land which adjoins the water course and the Council can only encourage these riparian owners to maintain them.

In rare circumstances when flooding incidents occur due to lack of maintenance the Council can undertake clearance/improvement works and recharge the owner for the cost of doing so.

Local landowners are also responsible for removal of fly tipping from the watercourse that adjoins their property.

Highway Drainage

Highway Drainage is necessary to remove water from the roads and pavements and consists of Pipelines, Inspection Covers and Gullies.  Not all drainage in the road is the responsibility of the Highway Authority.  Some may be the responsibility of (amongst others) Thames Water Utilities.

Removal of water from the Highway ensures the hazard of skidding is reduced and flooding is kept to minimum. Inconvenience to the public is also minimised by removing ponding.

An important feature of maintaining the highway drainage is that of cleaning the gullies in the road.  

The Borough Council has over 25000 gullies and these are cleaned on a rolling programme. When each gully is visited the debris is removed and the gully is checked to see it is working correctly the grills are also cleaned. We will also attend to a gully in response to reports that there may be a problem and ponding is occurring. We try to target those gullies that regularly become blocked It is also important to regularly clean gullies on high-speed roads and known difficult areas. Therefore the Borough has categorised these areas shown below in order of importance.

• Principal A Category Road
• Urban Villages
• Town Centre and Residential Parking Areas.

All other gullies not included in the above list, which are generally situated in residential areas, are cleaned depending on need but generally once every two and a half years depending on the available budget.