Operation Resilience - Investing in Hampshire's Roads

About Operation Resilience

Operation Resilience continues to make more of Hampshire’s roads resilient to the effects of extreme weather and increasingly heavy traffic as part of a long term strategy to ‘future-proof’ the network.

Good roads are a vital part of Hampshire’s infrastructure and essential for the county’s economic progress and future prosperity. Operation Resilience is essentially an investment in Hampshire’s roads for the long term, and marks a significant shift away from reactive to planned maintenance. This is a much better way to maintain roads for the future as the work lasts longer and is more cost effective.

Comments from Hampshire residents

• "This is just to let you know how pleased I and my friends, who use this lane, are with the resurfacing that has been done. A really first class job done by an excellent team of workers". November 2012, Liss.
• "The workmen have been extra careful not to cause any inconvenience to residents and deserve a massive pat on the back. They have done a brilliant job". November 2012, Denmead.
• "I would like to thank the workmen working on Kings Road, Alton. Resurfacing is really good, they worked quickly and efficiently and they were nice and polite, well done!" December 2012, Alton.

Programme for 2012/13

Around 350 separate sites on roads and pavements throughout Hampshire are being targeted this year as part of Operation Resilience.

Work is focusing on areas where strengthening and ‘weather-proofing’ has the most benefit and provides best value for money.

The programme includes resurfacing 192 stretches of road covering 52 miles,  with drainage work at 93 sites.  Improvements will also be carried out to pavements at 65 sites totalling 15 miles.

Structural work on drainage systems increases their ability to remove surface water from the roads. This helps to  prevent water seeping in and freezing to create potholes.  Using a range of materials and innovative approaches, the work includes band and concrete joint repairs as well as jetpatching, mostly used in rural locations for high speed, one-stop treatments.

Many of the sites in the programme will be targeting smaller roads in rural locations, making sure that Hampshire remains open and accessible for business as well as letting residents get on with their daily lives.

Operation Resilience is run by a team from Hampshire County Council, Amey and Tarmac (see note on our private sector partners below).

Facts and figures

2011 / 12

Resurfacing work was carried out on:

• Roads - 259 sites covering 90 miles
• Pavements - 25 sites covering 6 miles.
• Drainage – 32 sites
• Rural roads– 20 miles.

2012 / 13

Resurfacing work is planned on:

• Roads -192 sites covering 52 miles
• Pavements - 65 sites covering 15 miles
• Drainage – 93 sites.

National pothole review

In April 2011 Norman Baker MP announced a national pothole review into the problem of potholes on roads and considered how local highway authorities dealt with this issue.. The report makes 17 recommendations to improve highway reflects the changes that Hampshire County Council has already made in its highways maintenance programme.

Winter damage - additional funding from Department for Transport

In April 2011 the Government made £200m available to local Highway Authorities to support the repair of roads damaged by the cold winter weather. Hampshire received just over a £6m share of this money, which was committed to supporting Hampshire's 'Operation Resilience'.

Using this extra funding, resources were identified to establish and implement a number of different highway maintenance treatment programmes across Hampshire. These treatment programmes included:

• jet patching ( a treatment to fill potholes and repair road edges in rural areas)
• joint and band sealing ( repairs cracks in flexible road surfaces and concrete roads)
• road resurfacing schemes (in addition to the planned Operation Resilience programme), and
• an extensive structural patching programme to permanently repair potholes.

These treatment programmes  were all completed before the end of September 2011.

Private Sector Partners

Amey

Amey is Hampshire County Council's term highways maintenance partner and one of the UK's leading public services providers, looking after a range of services such as road and bridge design, waste, congestion management, rail track improvement and street lighting. With around 11,000 people working for the organisation, Amey manages vital infrastructure and business services across the UK.

Tarmac

Tarmac National Contracting (TNC) is the UK's leading road maintenance and highways services company. With a nationwide presence, TNC provides a range of services to local and national road authorities and their contractors including surfacing and maintenance, traffic management, winter services, lighting and grass cutting. A strong heritage and unrivalled technical expertise enables TNC to supply a range of high quality, sustainable products to its customers. TNC is part of Tarmac, the UK's foremost quarrying company and supplier of construction materials, which is market leader for aggregates, concrete, asphalt and ready-mixed concrete. For more information, please visit the Tarmac website.

Technical terms explained

Jetpatcher

High speed patching machine which can fix numerous defects, Bitumen emulsion bond-coat is forced deep into cracks, crevices and potholes to improve the adhesion. Bitumen emulsion and an appropriate aggregate are mixed, then immediately compacted into the void using high velocity. The result is a level, sealed repair that quickly blends into the existing surface. The repair is completed within a few minutes and is immediately ready for traffic.

Hardipave

an alternative to bituminous surfaces, being a hybrid between asphalt and concrete with good resistance to wear and loading where traffic travels at low speed, suited to areas such as roundabouts and bus lanes.

Surface dressing

Spraying the road with bitumen and applying a thin layer of stone chippings is a cost effective and sustainable way to ensure roads stay in good condition. Although the chippings are rolled, allowing traffic on the road immediately after treatment helps 'bed in' the chips. Loose chippings are swept from the carriageway within 24 hours and again after three days and seven days. However, drivers should take care and keep to the reduced speed limits as some loose chippings will still be on the road until swept up.

Micro asphalt

Bitumen emulsion and aggregate slurry which is laid cold by a specialised machine. This seals the surface and improves skid resistance. The finished surface has low noise characteristics and good ride qualities -  the efficient process reduces time on site and causing minimum disruption to residents.

Finagrip

A multi-layered cold applied thin surfacing system.  Based on surface dressing principals with no loose aggregate on completion, this seals the surface and improves skid resistance.

Finatex

A double-layered HAPAS (Highways Authorities Product Approval Scheme) approved cold applied thin surfacing system. Based on surface dressing principals this seals the surface and improves skid resistance.

Band Sealing

The overbanding of cracks in the road surface using a bitumen material to seal the cracks to prevent  water getting in.

Concrete Joint repair

the repair of joints involving routing out  the top surface and resealing with a flexible, waterproof material that protects the joint and prevents water getting in.