How we maintain local highways

Structures

Hounslow Highways is responsible for the maintenance of 45 structures in the borough, while there are 20 other structures maintained directly by the council. Structures include bridges, footbridges, subways and retaining walls.

We measure an average Bridge Condition Indicator (BCI) score for a structure, which considers the condition of all its structural elements.

We have a five-year programme of structures maintenance to keep:

• the overall BCI average of 45 structures above 90
• the BCI average of elements for individual structures above 80

In 2024 we met these targets, with the overall BCI average at 92.10.

Our inspections are made yearly in line with the Code of Practice for Highways Structures and the maintenance programme is updated in line with inspection outcomes.

Traffic signs, street lighting columns and drainage

Hounslow Highways maintains 13,137 traffic signs on the highways network. We carry out a 5% audit every year to make sure the retro-reflection is above 144cd/lx/m2.

We maintain 16,033 lighting columns on the network. We carry out structural, integrity and electrical testing every six years to ensure that safety is not compromised.

We maintain 21,908 gullies on the network. The gullies are cleansed in line with the road hierarchy, which is based on a link and place matrix. See: Hounslow Highways website Defect Investigatory Levels (PDF)

The table below shows our yearly expenditure on highways maintenance.

The figures are for like-for-like planned and reactive maintenance works. This means they exclude all money spend on traffic improvement schemes, which may include measures like town centre regeneration, sustainable transport schemes and accessibility and safety schemes. This is normally funded from our LIP funding from Transport for London.

Capital allocated by DfT

Carriageway maintenance grant issued to local authorities additional investment for planned highway maintenance.

Capital spend

This includes:

• Annual capital spent on carriageways renewal funded by the Hounslow PFI project
• Annual capital spent on footways renewal funded by the Hounslow PFI project
• Pothole Pledge Allocation funded by the authority from 2018 to 2022
• Footway Pledge Allocation form the authority in 2025/26

Revenue spend

Reactive maintenance budget funded by the Hounslow PFI on carriageway and footway defect repairs.

Preventative maintenance

Preventative spend is made up of larger scale maintenance project on assets which are showing signs of deterioration but have not yet reached the authority’s intervention level for immediate reactive maintenance. The locations to be reviewed each year are determined by the output of our Asset Optioneering Model, which uses an algorithm based on:

• the results from the yearly consistent condition surveys
• the existing nature of the assets (geometrical size and construction make up)
• the current asset class based on a link and place categorisation
• pre-set rules for deterioration and repeat treatment over time

Of the revenue budget, 65% is spent on footway and 35% is spent on carriageway. Of the carriageway amount, 75% is then spent on pothole repairs.

Our programme output for preventative maintenance in 2024 included:

Carriageways

• 49 locations treated equivalent to 16,604sq.m
• mixture of treatments including:
  • full road resurfacing
  • panel repair (machine lay)
  • panel repair (hand lay)
  • high friction surfacing
• Additional output from other significant traffic improvement schemes:
  • DfT surfacing grant: full road surfacing / 7,470sq.m
  • Cycleway Southall Lane: full road surfacing / 3,300sq.m
  • Cycleway 9 Brentford: full road surfacing / 9,500sq.m

Footways

• Five locations treated under planned maintenance equivalent to 2,332sq.m
• Additional output from other significant traffic improvement schemes:
  • Cycleway C9 Brentford: footway relay / 4,500sq.m
  • Cycleway Southall Lane: footway relay / 2,700sq.m
  • Brentford Yorkstone Project / 3,000sq.m

Reactive maintenance

Reactive maintenance spend is made up of the smaller localised intervention on sections of the network which have reached or exceeded the intervention level.

These are identified as a result of routine safety inspection from our trained Highway Inspector and ad-hoc reports received from members of the public through our customer management system.

The above approach to Asset Management has received ISO 55001 certification.

Overall strategy

Hounslow Highways is responsible for managing the highway assets in Hounslow. The project network is divided in:

• Road Section Lengths (RSL)
• Footway Section Lengths (FSL)

These are surveyed each year in accordance with the latest guidance on asset management.  

The surveys include both visual and mechanised inspection and are carried out by an independent accredited company in line with industry best practice.

The results of the survey are then fed into our Asset Optioneering Model (AOM), which informs our planned capital maintenance programme based on the condition, construction type and deterioration rates.

Design solutions are selected in close collaboration with our pavement engineering consultancy, focussing on the lifecycle of the proposed treatments to minimise the need for repeated intervention. 

Immediate defects are identified through a mixture of punctual residents’ reports and scheduled road safety inspections done by highways inspectors in accordance to the roads’ hierarchy. These defects are then addressed as part of our reactive maintenance programme. 

All relevant strategies and targets are set in accordance with the Hounslow Highways Highway Asset Management Plan (HAMP) and conform with our ISO 55001 accreditation.  

The process in use to manage highway assets in Hounslow have been devised at the start of the PFI Contract to align with best practice. The quality of our approach and data is monitored each year through a stringent regime of internal and external audits.

Hounslow Highways has achieved ISO 55001 accreditation status.

Hounslow Highways works closely with Jean Lefevre Ltd, our technical advisors, to ensure both the accuracy of the survey process and compliance with the latest regulations and guidances.

Innovation is also pushed through early contractor involvement and partnership with our surfacing contractor Eurovia. This enables us to trial and promote new products as they become avaiable. Recent example of these include the introduction of warm asphalts and low carbon asphalts.  

We are trialling Vaisala and Road AI to carry out network inspections.  

There are daily war rooms taking place between the network management and operations team to make sure correct type of jobs are raised.

Specific plans for 2025 to 2026

Carriageways

• 56 carriageway locations are planned to be treated from the capital funding budget, totalling 23,929 sqm from with the PFI Annual Major Maintenance Programme.
• The DfT allocation for 2025/26 will be used to resurface a further eight schemes totalling 15,784sq.m including:
  • Whitton Dene, which is a strategic route between Hounslow and Twickenham, facilitating easier travel between Twickenham Stadium and transport hubs in Hounslow.
  • Chatsworth Crescent, Hounslow
  • New Road, Bedfont
  • Holly Close, Hanworth 
• A further 4,600sq.m of carriageway resurfacing have been confirmed through the implementation of council-commissioned traffic schemes, with more expected to be confirmed throughout the year.

A total of 44,313sq.m of carriageway will be resurfaced in 2025/26 based on the current agreed programme.

Footways

• Six footway locations are to be treated from the capital funding budget. totalling 1,800sq.m
• A further 3,200sq.m of footway relay has been confirmed
• An additional £2 million funding from the authority capital fund for footway surfacing is expected to be spent in 2025/26 across 22 locations
• 100% of the allocation will be spent on preventative maintenance 

A total of 29 individual footway sections will be improved in 2025/26 based on the current agreed programme.

Other plans

• Routine maintenance will continue to be carried out as required on the 45 structures forming part of the Hounslow PFI. 
• Strand on The Green river wall in Chiswick is also currently under investigation to assess the scope of forthcoming repairs. Finite scope and timescale of the works will be subject to agreement with the Environment Agency. 
• Further planned maintenance is also under review for Stourton Bridge and Kendal Bridge, although these are unlikely to start on site until 2026.    
• Filling 937 potholes, based on an average of the total number of potholes filled over the last five years. 

Minimising disruption due to street and roadworks

To increase the efficient running of the highway network by minimising the disruption and inconvenience caused by road and street works and other highway events and activities through proactive management of activities on the highway. 

The introduction of the permit scheme has enabled controls not previously available under legislation to be used to improve the management of all activities on the road network through increased co-ordination and timing of works with all works promoters, including works for roads purposes. 

The scheme has provided improved control, planning and coordination of works and a more robust framework for checking and challenging activities. These measures have promoted a reduction in the total duration of works taking place within the highway and ensures that the conditions attributed to permits promote the expeditious movement of traffic through works thus reducing disruption and promoting safety at works sites. 

The scheme is to ensure journey reliability on the road network with a focus on the busy routes defined as traffic sensitive and type 0, 1 and 2 roads, that carry the greatest volume of traffic and provide important public transport routes.

Other key objectives:

• Encouragement of partnership working between the permit authority, all Activity Promoters and key stakeholder groups in the borough 
• Enhanced coordination and cooperation
• Provision of more accurate and timely information to be communicated between all stakeholders including members of the public through letter drops, advance warning signs, the relevant websites, social media etc
• Promotion and encouragement of collaborative working 
• Improvement in timing and duration of activities, particularly in relation to the busiest streets within the network 
• Promotion of dialogue regarding the way activities are to be carried out 
• Enhanced programming of activities and better forward planning by all activity promoters 
• To ensure parity of treatment for all activity promoters particularly between statutory undertakers and highway authority works and activities. 
• Continue developing process and procedure to ensure agreements are best reflected within the permit details to aid co‐ordination. 
• Continue to build working relationships with neighbouring road authorities to ensure coordination is effective across boundaries. 
• Continue to focus on the identification of collaborative working opportunities at the planning stages through early engagement with all stakeholders 
• Continue the coring programme to gather data and feedback performance to works promoters to better understand reinstatement compliance and their effect on the longevity of the asset. 
• Continue developing process and procedure to ensure agreements are best reflected within the permit details to aid co‐ordination. 
• Continue to build working relationships with neighbouring road authorities to ensure coordination is effective across boundaries. 
• Continue to focus on the identification of collaborative working opportunities at the planning stages through early engagement with all stakeholders.

Regular performance meetings with utilities are held to enable a shared understanding as to why non-compliance has occurred and what measures can be introduced to prevent future reoccurrences.

Enforcement activity such as the number of FPNs and Overruns issued over a period is reviewed.

This contributes to improving the safety of road users in terms of signing and guarding whilst protecting the highway asset by ensuring the quality of works on the highway.

Our Transport Strategy was adopted on 25 March 2025. This details how the transport strategy will be delivered in line with TfL's policies.

The Transport Strategy clearly set out the overarching vision, objectives and focus areas for the council.

There are four key focus areas of the strategy setting our vision to provide a safe, inclusive, efficient and healthy transport and highway network over the coming years.