Monday 3 April 2023: Utility companies
digging up the road again
Imagine that there is a leak
running down the side of a reasonably busy main road. It's not flooding the
road, but it is streaming constantly along the gutter and will require digging
up part of the road to fix.
Please could you tell us what
you think the steps and processes are for getting this leak fixed and to
complete the roadworks? Please think of everything, starting from the leak
initially being reported, to the leak ultimately being repaired.
I have little doubt that this exercise will show how
lamentably ignorant I am with regards both to practical issues and to legal and
bureaucratic procedures.
Step 1: The leak needs to be visible, to be spotted, and to
be taken notice of by someone who may generally be considered nosy and
interfering. I am one of those people, and typically report pot-holes in the
road, and unlit street-lights, to the local authority.
Step 2: If there is no indication that the leak is being
attended to, then said busybody needs to report the leak to the relevant water
companies: plural because where I live Affinity Water supplies the fresh water
and Southern Water attempts to manage the waste water. I would not be confident
about identifying accurately whether a small leak was fresh water or waste
water. I would use an online water leak service, although in the past I have
telephoned a water company directly.
Step 3: The contacted water company would then need to
investigate, first of all establishing whether the leak is fresh or waste,
thereby determining which company should take the matter forwards.
Step 4: The 'responsible water company' would then have to
establish where the leak is. This may not be easy because where water comes to
the ground surface may be distant from where the leak from the water pipe is.
Step 5: Having established where the leak is, the water
company would have to determine whether the leak is beneath public or private
land. From this information, they could need to be clear whether the leak was,
indeed, their responsibility. There may be three scenarios: the leak may be
their responsibility, and beneath public land; the leak may be their
responsibility but beneath land that is privately owned; the leak may be the
responsibility of the private land owner. The underground water pipe network is
extensive, and pipes pass under roads, footways, parks and fields, and people's
gardens. For example, with building-infill, a house might not have existed when
a water main was first laid, or maybe a water main spur had to be laid across
someone else's garden.
Both ownership and jurisdiction may be unclear and would
need to be established.
Step 6a: If the leak is beneath private land, and the
responsibility of the land owner, the water company would need to establish who
owned the land. In my own case, the leak was beneath my driveway and therefore
my responsibility (£££). Every two years, contractors contracted to UK Power
Networks knock on my door to ask who owns the fields either side of my
property. Their wish is to access the power lines that cross the two fields,
but they are required first to ask permission of the land owner. Fortunately
for them, I have got used to answering those questions, otherwise I imagine
that the process could take them weeks.
Step 6b: If the leak is beneath public land, such as a
public road (there are one or two private roads round here), then I guess that
the local authority will have to be notified.
Step 7: At some point, an engineer will need to make some
kind of initial assessment about the size of the leak. This assessment might
take place when the underground location of the leak is identified. I assume
that larger leaks take priority. On the other hand, I have seen instances of
what was thought to be a minor leak requiring considerably greater attention
and work than first assessed.
Step 8: If the leak is beneath a public road, as many are,
then further contact will have to be made with the local authority with a view
to closing a lane of the road, setting up traffic control measures, and
specifying how long the water main repair is expected to take. At the same time
there needs to be both an assessment of how much the repair is going to cost
the water company, and when a repair team will be available. There then needs
to be choreography with the local authority about the precise dates of the
lane/road closure. I think that road closure may be more complex, as it usually
requires the posting of public notices in advance of the closure, although I
assume that a major water main burst (not the scenario of this exercise) could
be attended to as an emergency.
Step 9: Assuming that the water mains will have to be turned
off for the duration of the repair, all affected householders and businesses
will have to be notified in advance, and if necessary arrangements put in place
for an alternative supply of water (say, a bowker, or supplies of bottled water
[which was the case in Challock, Kent, last summer]).
Step 10: This could be weeks after the nosy busybody (me)
has reported the leak - engineers arrive with equipment to dig up the
road/footway. However, this might be far from the end of the story. In North
Road, in the city centre of Durham, the Victorian water main burst. Its repair
required much time and equipment, as well as a very large hole. However, as
soon as the hole had been filled in and the road surface restored, the leak
recurred. Why, because the water main was so old and decayed that the sections
of old cast iron pipe onto which the new polyethylene pipe had been grafted simply
gave way. New holes had to be dug, more repairs effected, and the holes filled
in. Until the same thing happened again and again. It was like a slow-motion
Buster Keaton movie. Eventually Northumbrian Water accepted that the entirety
of the water main under North Road had to be replaced. Although my memory is
far from perfect, I think that the entire saga lasted between one and two
years, impacting on the shops and businesses, and changing for good how the
road was used by traffic and pedestrians. I might add that the huge water main
network beneath UK cities, towns and villages is equally old, decaying apace,
and I am unaware of any water company having methodical, comprehensive and
timely plans to replace the network that they 'inherited' on privatisation,
taking into account the expected lifespan of the relevant materials. (I should
be happy to be pointed towards documents that show me to be incorrect.) I
believe this to be a significant reason why there are so very many burst water
mains.
Step 11: The road surface is 'made up', although in the case
of Southern Water in my Kent village, remarkably poorly - the roadway (The
Square and Duck Street) have looked a mess ever since. If the road has been
closed, then the road is re-opened. The engineers pack up, and find out where
they are off to next.
Imagine that Affinity Water has
just started roadworks in your street…
1. What would roadworks with
minimal interruptions look like for you? How might this look and work in terms
of the experience, timings, communication etc.
Additionally, think about when
there is planned engineering works on your road, how much notice/warning would
you want, and why?
2. What kind of information do
you think should be provided when there is roadworks planned?
What kind of information do you
think is absolutely essential? What kind of information could be optional and
nice-to-have?
As it happens, Southern Water have just dug another hole in
Duck Street (see previous response). A notice was posted a couple of weeks ago
indicating that works would be taking place. I do not know whether the works
have been planned to coincide with the school holidays, resulting in less
traffic disruption. The location of the hole is not exactly convenient, and
seeing as it was Southern Water that chose to position the sewage control
facility in the middle of the road, instead of beside the road, the company is
directly responsible for the inconvenience. There is a high visibility plastic
barrier around the hole, and appropriate signage from both directions: 'road
works', 'road narrows' and 'pass on the right/left'. This means that a
pedestrian would have to be trying quite hard to fall down the hole, and that
motorists have adequate warning and guidance. There is no need for temporary
traffic lights. When there are road works on the Canterbury Road, it is often
the case that temporary traffic lights are set up directly outside my house,
and I have to put up with the throb of a diesel generator which I find
extremely irritating (being highly sensitive to noise). On the subject of
finding things irritating, I do not like hearing engineers shouting instructions
to each other, and prefer it when they use walkie-talkies. I also dislike the
discarded empty crisp packets and crumpled Greggs bags that are left after the
engineers have packed up and gone.
Road closures are always seriously disruptive, and therefore
undesirable. It is obviously valuable to have good warning of a planned road
closure. I am never absolutely sure if being alerted to an impending closure of
the Canterbury Road and then finding out that the road closure never took
place, is much of an improvement over the road being closed. This failure to
close the road happens periodically, and surprisingly often.
Essential information includes start and end dates for the
road works, along with starting and finishing times. This information allows me
to plan my journeys. I like to know the purpose of road works but that is
because I am nosy, and such information is not essential. On the other hand,
good information about what to do should there be a problem when the site is
unattended (such as at night) would be valuable. I have had to walk away from
seeing problems (such as all the safety barriers having fallen into a trench -
did they fall or were they pushed? or failed temporary traffic lights) because
there was no information about to whom to report the problem. It is also
helpful to indicate when such traffic controls are three-way instead of just
two - I have seen impatient motorists on many occasions decide to drive through
a red light because they have too quickly arrived at the conclusion that the
traffic lights have 'got stuck', which can be incredibly dangerous.
We’d now like to share with you
some context about what happens when we currently set up roadworks. When
Affinity Water has to stop traffic in order to fix a leak or refresh a mains connection,
they have to get permission from the council to do so. This process can take
time, sometimes up to three months in order to get approval.
Specifically up to three months, no, I did not know this,
but it comes as no surprise because for several years I had a lot of contact
with administrative staff, including transport and planning staff, working for a
local authority.
I should hope and expect that emergency work can be arranged
with somewhat greater alacrity.
Does this information impact on me? No. My complaint is not
the speed at which water companies address individual leaks, but the fact that
there are so many leaks because there appears to be no programme or schedule of
timely water main renewal.
Affinity Water can only send
reminder texts or emails to customers who share their email addresses or phone
numbers with us
How would you feel if you did
not receive a reminder text/email prior to works starting on your road? Why
would you feel this way?
How useful would you find a
notice board nearby to the roadworks, to feedback relevant information about
the roadworks, as well as phone numbers and email addresses? Please tell us why
this would/wouldn’t be helpful.
I think that the first question to ask is how would I feel
about receiving an SMS text message or e-mail to alert me to local road works? I
have never heard of such a thing. I should be very happy that I was being kept
informed. I have no difficulty in giving my cellphone number and e-mail address
to utility companies, and I know for certain that Affinity Water has my e-mail
address (my house is in a not-spot – without a cellphone signal, and so SMS
texts messages might arrive days later).
A road works notice board is a good idea, for the utility
company to give information about what to do in the event of problems (as I wrote
in a previous response).
