Managing Emerging Network Risks

As part of managing the strategic road network day to day, one of the areas we often have to deal with is emerging risks on the network. A recent example of this was in late 2015 when Tadcaster Bridge was swept away in the Boxing Day floods, making national news.

The loss of the bridge on the A659 presented challenges to the local authorities managing the local road network and the local community, and for our business managing the nearby strategic A64 trunk road.

Our emerging risk process was immediately put into action to manage the wide and varying risks to the nearby trunk road as a result of the expected year long process to rebuild the bridge.

This included:

• Additional temporary signing on the A64 advising of A659 closure and directing traffic to different junctions along the A64.
• Additional temporary traffic management including diversions and barriers at A64 junctions to manage increased traffic movements including reducing permitted movements at some junctions.
• Re-programming four of our maintenance schemes to minimise the effect on local communities.
• Regular attendance with other key stakeholders including emergency services, local authorities, and councils at progress meetings to manage the situation.
• Regular updating of our emergency risk assessment to ensure all risks were being mitigated.

Our effective risk mitigation has been key to ensuring that the effect of the bridge collapse on road users and adjacent communities has been minimised as far as possible, a key contribution to Respecting the Community.