The council’s Highways and Infrastructure Service is responsible for looking after:

• 72 km of trunk roads on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government, (A55, A5, A494)
• 1413 km of other roads
• 1300 km of public footpaths (including bridle ways and other Public Rights of Way)
• 12,700 street lights
• 545 bridges and culverts
• 164 retaining walls
• 163 footbridges

Routine Maintenance
Routine Highway Maintenance includes carriageway and footway patching and maintenance of:
• Road markings and cats eyes
• Highway drainage systems and ditches
• Road signs
• Safety barriers and guard rails
• Street lights, illuminated signs, bollards and traffic signals
• Public footpaths
• Cycle paths
Inspectors and members of the public report problems and then work is done in order of priority as resources allow.

Planned Maintenance:

Carriageways
• Reconstruction
• Resurfacing
• Overlays
• Surface dressing

Footways
• Reconstruction – including new kerbs where necessary
• Resurfacing
• Slurry sealing

Planned maintenance is done on the basis of need, taking into account the following:
• Condition surveys
• Highway inspections and number of defects
• Third party insurance claims
• Level of use
• Level of funding available

We produce an annual works programme and report to county councillors.

Before most major schemes begin, notification is sent to:
• Local residents
• Town/Community Council
• Local council members
• Local press
• Local Access Group
• Emergency services

Reactive Maintenance

Regular inspections are carried out to find defects which could be dangerous to the public such as potholes and trip hazards.
Frequency of Safety Inspections are:
• Main Shopping Areas - 1 month
• Class I and II roads - 3 months
• Local inter-connecting roads - 3 months
• Local access roads - 6 months
We aim to fix defects which are deemed to be dangerous within 24 hours
We also respond to emergency incidents such as flooding of the highway as soon as possible, depending on the extent and resources available, clearly potential flooding of properties would take priority.

Winter Service
Clearing Snow and Gritting:
Whenever freezing conditions are forecast the following roads are pre-gritted as a precaution against ice.
• All Trunk Roads
• Class I and II County Roads
• Other important roads which are:

o Through routes with high volumes of traffic
o At least one access to ‘emergency services centres (hospitals, fire stations, ambulance stations)
o At least one access to towns and villages

This covers 414 km which is 28% of the roads in the County

Street Lighting
The Street Lighting section is responsible for the installation and maintenance of street lighting columns, illuminated signs and bollards

We respond to Emergency Category 1 defects within 2 hours, day or night, 365 days of the year.
This covers:
• Making safe accident or vandal damage
• Lantern or lantern bowl hanging loose
• Failure of large section of lighting
• Column door insecure or missing

We will attend Category 2 defects within 24 hours of issue of the work
This covers:
• Faults affecting 3 or more consecutive lights in a road
• Faults affecting the only light in a cul-de-sac or other short road
• Faults affecting school patrol’ flasher’ lights
 All other defects (category 3) will be attended within 5 working days.

Electricity is supplied by the Power Systems (Manweb) network and any faults on their network can only be rectified by them or their contractors. The Council has a Service Level Agreement with Power Systems so that faults are rectified within a defined period.

Service Level Agreement with Power Systems
Emergency – To remove immediate danger to the public or property.
Attend within 2 hours of notification, day or night, 365 days of the year.
Urgent – Work is urgent but would not require attendance outside of normal working hours.
Attend on next working day.
Enhanced Response – To restore power to a lighting installation which has a single electricity supply but provides power, generally to more than 4 lights or fewer if requested by the Council.
Attend within 5 working days
Standard – All other faults
Attend within 10 working days.

Traffic Signals and Pedestrian Crossings
(Contract hours 7am to 7pm, 365 days of the year)
Urgent
• Signals unit
• Equipment damaged and in dangerous condition
• Signals failing to change
• Phasing problems leading to excessive queues
• Signals or optical equipment damaged
Attend within 4 contract hours and restore operation within 8 contract hours of notification
Non-Urgent
• All other faults
Attend within 24 contract hours and repair within 84 contract hours of notification.

Grass Cutting
Highway verges are cut in the interests of highway safety and to ensure safe visibility for highway users.
• Rural Verges
1 swathe cut once per year (additional cuts at junctions, bends, roundabouts etc where necessary for visibility)
• Urban – within 30mph limits
Maintained by our Environmental Services Dept and cut much more frequently and to a higher standard.

Weed Spray   - None

Gully Emptying
All gullies are cleaned at least once a year, more often if there are particular problems

Enforcement
Under the Highways Act 1980 the Council as Highway Authority for County Roads has certain duties and powers in order to maintain safe passage for pedestrians and traffic.
The most common are:
• Mud or other debris on the road
• Overhanging branches, shrubs and hedges
• Obstruction of footways with goods or display boards. This is policed by our Environmental Services dept.
• Parking – Enforced by our Parking Services section

Streetworks
Streetworks covers all works within the public highway including works carried out by Statutory Undertakers (gas, electricity, water and phone companies) and the licences for placing items within the highway
Under the New Roads and Streetworks Act the Council has a duty to:
• Co ordinate and record all works within the highway
• Maintain a register of all Streetworks within the County
• Produce and Maintain a Street Gazetteer
• Inspection of streetworks
• Issue of ‘Road Opening Notices’
• Issue licences for all skips and scaffolding in the Highway
• Issue consents for temporary traffic lights
• Provide advice on traffic management methods for anyone working in the Highway.