Repair costs to a SSOBB

The request was successful.

Dear Highways England Company Limited,

Following a recent accident I have been presented with a rather unsightly repair bill by a private company that you contract to look after the section of motorway in question (Connect M1-A1) - the repair itself is to one minor section of a SSOBB that needed straightening and appears to include grossly inflated costs that they seem unable to defend.

Whilst I understand that every repair and replacement can differ slightly, I would like to know what costs should be incurred for a minor repair that did not warrant any hardware to be replaced. The damaged section was less than 1 meter and affected a single sided open box beam barrier.

I would be grateful if you could also include some examples of previous repair costs to allow me to fully understand how costs may differ. These previous examples do not need to include any personal information, please bare this in mind so that it does not hinder my FOI request.

Yours faithfully,

James

Highways England,

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Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
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6. mailto:[Highways England request email]

Dear Highways England Company Limited,

I sent you a FOI request over one month ago have yet to hear back from you.

Requests provided to you require an actioned response by law - and I believe you have failed to comply.

As I am in an ongoing legal battle with one of your subcontracted customers, and you are upholding the delay to defend them.

I would highly appreciate if you can please provide the information as requested.

Yours faithfully,

James Lawson

Highways England,

This is an automated response:

 

Thank you for your email to Highways England.

 

If you’re reporting a real time issue which requires immediate attention
please call the Customer Contact Centre on 0300 123 5000. 

 

A map of the roads for which we are responsible can be found here
[1]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk....
If the road you’re interested in isn’t on this map it will fall under the
jurisdiction of the local authority.  You can find details of local
authorities using the search facility on the gov.uk website
at: [2]https://www.gov.uk/find-your-local-council

 

If your email does relate to an issue on Highways England's network it
will be passed to the relevant team within Highways England and they will
respond to you within a maximum of 15 working days.

 

If you’ve made a request under the Freedom of Information Act we will
respond to you within a maximum of 20 working days. Your request will be
dealt with in line with government guidelines:
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Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
|National Traffic Operations Centre, 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park,
Birmingham B32 1AF |
[5]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... |
[6][Highways England request email]

 

Registered in England and Wales no 9346363 | Registered Office: Bridge
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6. mailto:[Highways England request email]

TPC HAIL,

James

 

The purpose of this e-mail is to sincerely apologise for missing the 1
April 2019 regarding your Freedom Of Information request regarding the
repair costs to a minor section of SSOBB.

 

Due to Circumstances out of my control, I regret that I have been unable
to meet the scheduled deadline.

 

We are currently looking into the issues that you have raised regarding
the repair costs to the SSOBB and we will respond in due course to the
request.

 

Please accept my apology for this delay.

 

Thank you for your time and understanding in the above matter.

 

TPC HAIL

FBS Green Claims
Highways England | The Cube | 199 Wharfside Street | Birmingham | B1 1RN
Web: [1]https://highwaysengland.co.uk

 

 

 

 

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Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
|National Traffic Operations Centre, 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park,
Birmingham B32 1AF |
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... |
[3][Highways England request email]

 

Registered in England and Wales no 9346363 | Registered Office: Bridge
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Winkles, Oliver,

Hi Mr Lawson,

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you. Your original query was forwarded to the incorrect team and it never reached us. There are many reasons why a small repair might seem very expensive - the most likely is the cost of setting out traffic management to ensure the safety of the repair crew and/or divert traffic in the event of a full closure. However it is quite rare for us to write directly to individuals, especially in the case of such a minor repair. In order for us to understand what has happened here it would be useful if you could reply directly to me attaching any correspondence you have received in relation to this matter. I should then be able to investigate and hopefully provide a response.

Olly Winkles, Caseworker
Highways England | The Cube | 199 Wharfside Street | Birmingham | B1 1RN
Tel: +44 (0) 300 4703464
Web: https://highwaysengland.co.uk
GTN: 0300 470 3464

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Dear Winkles, Oliver,

Thank you for replying, I much appreciate you taking the time to overview my request.

The details I received in the post came from a company called "Balfour Beatty" - the accident happened along M1 motorway near Leeds.

So far they have billed for over 3 hours work, which saw the repair team un-mount x1 SSOBB leg, then replant the leg into the ground to make it straight again. There was no replacement hardware required as the barrier had just leant on a slight angle from the collision.

When Balfour Beatty sent me their traffic management plan however, it showed that they had billed for the time it took them to drive to the site and away from the site - the actual time they took to place the first cone, complete the repair and remove the final traffic management cone came to around 1 hour. They have also attached an extra bill which is in relation to a "one time repair fee" which was completed by their subcontractor Protek Fencing, yet I find the requirement for this service to be unnecessary due to the almost non existent damage.

Their total bill has equaled close to £4,000 for work that didn't appear to happen.

Referencing your comment:
"However it is quite rare for us to write directly to individuals, especially in the case of such a minor repair"

Please could you explain what you mean by this.

Yours sincerely,
James Lawson

Winkles, Oliver,

Thanks Mr Lawson,

I personally can't comment on claims submitted by anyone other than Highways England. When I say "it is quite rare for us to write directly to individuals, especially in the case of such a minor repair", what I mean is that our contracts have a threshold whereby repairs under a certain amount - usually £10,000.00 - are not sent to us. Our providers carry out the repair and then pursue the cost themselves. It is only if the repair costs more than £10,000.00 (or if the claim falls into any one of several exceptions such as uninsured drivers or serious/fatal injury) that we pay the provider for the repair and then pursue the claim ourselves.

It is clear that in this case that the repair was "under threshold" and pursued directly by Balfour Beatty. We here in the central green claims team have no control over these claims so I can't help you and cannot comment on the validity of their repair costs. It is obvious that I will need to look to escalate this. It would make it much simpler if you could send me the documentation that Balfour Beatty sent to you. On receipt of that I will be able to send this upwards and hopefully get a full response for you from someone more senior.

Regards

Olly Winkles, Caseworker
Highways England | The Cube | 199 Wharfside Street | Birmingham | B1 1RN
Tel: +44 (0) 300 4703464
Web: https://highwaysengland.co.uk
GTN: 0300 470 3464

show quoted sections

FOI Advice,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Lawson,

 

I am writing to confirm that we have now completed our search for the
information which you requested on 3 March 2019. Your request has been
dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please
see our response below and please accept my apologies for the time it has
taken to provide this response to you.

 

In your e-mail of 3 March 2019 you asked the questions which are set out
below in bold. Highways England response is provided below each in italics
and in both cases we had to go out to the contractor who maintains this
section of network on our behalf for the response.

 

Whilst I understand that every repair and replacement can differ
slightly,  I would like to know what costs should be incurred for a minor
repair that did not warrant any hardware to be replaced. The damaged
section was less than 1 meter and affected a single sided open box beam
barrier.

 

The questions request the cost of a “minor repair that did not warrant any
hardware to be replaced” we cannot think of any obvious examples regarding
safety fence. If damage occurs to a steel safety fence due to a collision
it is replaced as there is no method of confirming the integrity of the
safety fence following that collision.

 

For an incident where there is no damage to the highway assets the cost
would depend on the staff and equipment employed to do whatever actions
were necessary.

 

I would be grateful if you could also include some examples of previous
repair costs to allow me to fully understand how costs may differ. These
previous examples do not need to include any personal information, please
bare this in mind so that it does not hinder my FOI request.

 

Please see attached excel document for a schedule of similar claims, i.e.
Single Sided Open Box Beam repairs, on the M1A1 of a similar size.

 

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request you may ask
for an internal review within 2 months of the date of this response for
Freedom of Information requests and within 40 days for Environmental
Information Regulations requests.      

Our internal review process is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

 

If you require a print copy, please phone the Information Line on 0300 123
5000; or e-mail [Highways England request email]. You should contact me if you
wish to complain.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

 

            Information Commissioner’s Office

            Wycliffe House

            Water Lane

            Wilmslow

            Cheshire

            SK9 5AF

 

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote reference number 769,335 in any future communications.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Highways England FOI Team 

Web: http://highwaysengland.co.uk

 

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Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
|National Traffic Operations Centre, 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park,
Birmingham B32 1AF |
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... |
[2][Highways England request email]

 

Registered in England and Wales no 9346363 | Registered Office: Bridge
House, 1 Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4LZ 

 

Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really
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FOI Advice,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Lawson

Please find attached the internal review reference: 769,996 of your Freedom of Information request reference: 769,335.

Yours Sincerely

Jonathan Drysdale
Freedom of Information Officer (HE)
Information & Technology
Highways England | Piccadilly Gate | Store Street | Manchester | M1 2WD
Tel: +44 (0) 300 4701536
Web: http://highwaysengland.co.uk

show quoted sections

FOI Advice,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Lawson

 

Please find attached the internal review reference: 769,996 of your
Freedom of Information request reference: 769,335.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Jonathan Drysdale

Freedom of Information Officer (HE)

Information & Technology

Highways England | Piccadilly Gate | Store Street | Manchester | M1 2WD

Tel: +44 (0) 300 4701536
Web: [1]http://highwaysengland.co.uk

 

This email may contain information which is confidential and is intended
only for use of the recipient/s named above. If you are not an intended
recipient, you are hereby notified that any copying, distribution,
disclosure, reliance upon or other use of the contents of this email is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please
notify the sender and destroy it.

 

Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
|National Traffic Operations Centre, 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park,
Birmingham B32 1AF |
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... |
[3][Highways England request email]

 

Registered in England and Wales no 9346363 | Registered Office: Bridge
House, 1 Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4LZ 

 

Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really
need to.

References

Visible links
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2. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
3. mailto:[Highways England request email]

FOI Advice,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Lawson

Please find attached the internal review reference: 769,996 of your Freedom of Information request reference: 769,335.

Yours Sincerely

Jonathan Drysdale
Freedom of Information Officer (HE)
Information & Technology
Highways England | Piccadilly Gate | Store Street | Manchester | M1 2WD
Web: http://highwaysengland.co.uk

show quoted sections