Utility companies and their streetwork contractors digging up roads in London can now find themselves being charged up to £2,500 a day for working in congested areas and at busy times of the day. Transport for London (TfL) has introduced the scheme in a bid to help cut congestion. Any profit from the scheme will go to research into new technology to reduce the disruption caused by roadworks. London has become the first city in the UK to charge utility companies for the amount of time that they dig up the capital's busiest roads. The scheme covers over 200 miles (57%) of the TfL road network, covering the areas most susceptible to major roadwork disruption. TfL itself is not exempt from the rules and the new scheme will also ensure that their works are delivered with minimal disruption. However, around 70% of TfL works are currently carried out outside of peak hours, compared to around 20% of utility works. More than 270 police community support officers (PCSOs), who are funded by TfL, will monitor roadworks, together with TfL officials. Londoners are also being encouraged to grass up contractors using Twitter (tweet @report_it with the hashtag #roadworks). London introduced a permitting scheme for roadworks in January 2010, since when serious and severe disruption caused by roadworks on London's key red routes is down by almost 40%, TfL reckons. The target for the lane rental scheme is to reduce disruption by a further 33% or 165 hours of disruption a year by 2015. London mayor Boris Johnson said: “Lane rental is a vital addition to our arsenal. Setting the meter running the moment the first cone appears will finally make utilities understand the full economic cost of their work. It will encourage companies to work round the clock, team up and share trenches or develop new technology to speed up their work. Lane rental will keep traffic moving, and promote peace on our roads.” Money raised through the lane rental scheme will help fund a joint research project set up last year by the Department for Transport and TfL to develop new technology to reduce the disruption caused by roadworks. The 18-month project, run by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), is examining innovative engineering techniques that could see utilities use temporary road surfacing methods such as plating, fast-setting replacement road surfaces or more innovative methods such as core and vac techniques, which allows utility works to be carried out under the road surface without the need to excavate a large area of the road surface. All these methods would allow both TfL and utility companies to carry out more work at quieter times, meaning that more roads could be re-opened during peak traffic periods, cutting delays and disruption across the capital.
So what happens if there's an emergency repair to be made? Can the utility contractor deny the request to start until a less congested time? Or can they have a special permit to make them exempt from this fine/rental fee? I'd be a little pissed if I was called to do a 911 repair and told to do it asap then later got a bill cause I was doing the work at peak times.
sorry about that watter gushing from that giant geyser in the middle of the street. we have to wait till 8 PM before we can fix it to avoid the charges.
I don't see a huge problem with this...it's just another form of liquidated damages. You work the cost of the lane rental into your bid price for the work, including a reasonable contingency. If you bring the job in on-time thern there is no cost to the contractor, if you hustle, there is a bonus. The increase in construction contract values for the city is basically zero, as the rent added to the tenders is paid directly back to them. I think the main complaints about this is it will force contractors to have a realistic look at schedule prior to tender. Plus it removes a bit of overall flexibility in your fleet, as you would be less inclined to borrow resources for another job.
i was just in london in may, there was still lots of work going on. berckley st where we stayed was tore up the whole week. didnt seem to be stopping anything from happening
They have this here in the states in every large city I bet. In Socal IIRC it was $5K per minute your late.