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London’s surface assets carry on deteriorating

TfL budget constraints put ageing assets at risk of deterioration
By Rob Hakimian

Many of London’s major surface transport assets such as roads, tunnels and flyovers will continue to deteriorate because Transport for London (TfL) is struggling to find the funds to cover the repairs backlog.

Agenda papers from the TfL’s programmes and investment committee on 17 May show that the number of assets with interim measures, such as speed or weight restrictions, will rise to 65 in 2023/24 – the eighth consecutive year there has been an increase.

Major London assets that have had restrictions imposed for several years include the Rotherhithe Tunnel which needs major refurbishment and is only open to cars.

The A40 Westway has had its speed limit reduced because it needs key bridge joint renewals and Gallows Corner flyover has a speed and weight restriction because of widespread steel fatigue.

TfL’s funding for asset renewals was substantially reduced in 2018/2019 and in 2019/2020 after the government removed the London transport operator’s revenue grant. TfL had planned to bring repair and maintenance funding back to sustainable levels the following year but this was scuppered by the pandemic and the resulting drop in fare revenues.

As a result investment in 2020/2021 dropped to £97M, 79% of the planned £122M outlay. This continued in 2021/2022 with planned investment cut from £184M to £122M to reflect the available funding.

TfL says it is looking to secure alternative funding through programmes such as the Department for Transport’s Major Road Network Programme.

But even with additional funding streams it will have to make decisions about deferring project renewals, which could result in an increased risk of network disruption and asset restrictions.

The agenda papers state: “The increasing backlog of renewals will place additional pressure on future years’ budgets as the assets deteriorate further and require more extensive – and therefore more expensive – repairs. “[TfL] continue[s] to work with the DfT to seek the additional funding required for major renewals.”

For now, the work will start with the most vital upgrades, which have been prioritised according to six asset management objectives: safety; service; customer and staff; environment; capacity and growth; and finance. A work bank has been created that will bring projects forward when required.

TfL has budgeted for £98M to be spent on surface-level asset renewals in 2023/2024. Key activities planned for the financial year include a £10.3M investment in carriageway renewals and £7M on smaller structures renewals.

It also hopes to advance the A40 Westway expansion joint renewal with £6.8M to complete the detailed designs. In addition a £2.5M contract for the concept design for repairs to the Brent Cross Flyover is expected to be awarded.

Due to budget constraints in 2023/2024, there will be no progress on the Hostile Vehicle Mitigation Programme to prevent the use of vehicles in terrorist attacks on the Thames bridges. The budget for investing in borough roads and bridges will also be significantly lower than previous years, with only the highest priority projects progressed.

Potentially critical renewals for 2023/2024 could cost as much as £135M, £37M above TfL’s planned budget of £98M.

The TfL committee’s agenda paper states: “This represents a work bank of additional priority schemes that can be accelerated should further funding become available, or if delivery on other schemes is slower than anticipated.

“Periodic reviews will be used, together with quarterly investment decision points to assess the level of delivery achieved, the planned outputs and determine whether additional commitments can be made. This will include ongoing review of asset priorities to ensure the best value for money investment. This approach gives maximum flexibility to ensure a safe and operable network is maintained.”

Planned investment in surface-level assets for 2022/2023 was £101M, but ultimately TfL had to spend £117M, funding the increase from efficiencies in design work and other parts of its budget.

The papers also show that TfL had improved the efficiency of its 2022/2023 surface asset renewal programme. This was targeted to save £4.4M, but actually saved £6.1M.