Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Plan (HIAMP)

The Highways teams at Southwark Council maintain 332km of public highway network and its associated assets. Our roads, footways, street lights, street furniture, gullies and drains, trees, signs, road markings, bridges and other structures are all different types of highway asset that are considered in our Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Plan (HIAMP).

Our highway network is the most valuable asset we own. It is estimated that it would cost over £1.98 billion to rebuild our network (not including it's land value). The highway plays a vital part in delivering Southwark Council’s Fairer Future Promises. Our roads and pavements provide safe and reliable journeys which supports social and economic prosperity, not just for our borough but for Greater London too. They also facilitate the transport of services essential to health and wellbeing, such as emergency services, bus services, health services and food transportation.

Like many councils, Southwark is facing significant challenges in maintaining a safe and reliable highway network during a time of diminishing resources, ageing highway assets and increasing public expectation. Government has changed the rules for funding highway maintenance. An increasing proportion of Government funding is now dependant on local authorities being able to evidence that they use asset management techniques in highway maintenance.

In simple terms, investing in routine maintenance and replacement of certain aspects of an asset will help prolong the service life span beyond its original design life therefore offering maximum value for money. An analogy would be the maintenance of a house. Should a few tiles be missing from the roof, then it is possible to keep the roof water tight and serviceable by spending a limited amount on replacing those broken roof tiles that leak, even if the rest of the roof looks in poor condition. Timely repairs will prevent water damage leading to the deterioration of the timbers supporting the roof, delaying the time when the whole roof will need to be replaced.

The same principle is applied to our roads and footways. Condition surveys identify those sections of the highway that are failing and in poor condition. Repairs to those sections will keep the highway network in a serviceable condition and help delay the deterioration of the rest of the network.

Well Managed Highway Infrastructure: A code of practice introduced 36 recommendations for Highway Authorities to adopt from October 2018. A significant recommendation is to adopt a risk based approach to asset management and Southwark Council is revising its road hierarchy based on fifteen different risk factors.

Our Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Plan (HIAMP) ^{(PDF, 734kb)} together with component documents sets out our strategy policies and investment criteria to keep our highway assets in a safe and operational state in the most effective and efficient manner, both on a day to day basis and in the long term.

• HIAMP - Performance Management Framework ^{(PDF, 362kb)}
• HIAMP - Lifecycle Planning ^{(PDF, 814kb)}
• HIAMP - Highway Policy Plan ^{(PDF, 1.3mb)}
• HIAMP - Asset Management Policy Strategy and Levels of Service ^{(PDF, 492kb)}
• HIAMP - Asset Management Framework (2018) ^{(PDF, 419kb)}

Page last updated: 07 December 2020