T0645 KPIs Reporting and Technical Support including Ride Quality

National Highways is looking to set up a contract for the calculation and reporting of the Pavement Condition Key Performance Indicator (KPI) as well as reporting of the Ride Quality (RQ) Performance Indicator (PI).

Each month National Highways reports on the pavement network condition and at the end of the year provides a summary of the condition through the year for inclusion in the National Highways Annual Report. National Highways has an agreed format for the majority of this reporting. The monthly value of condition and an associated commentary, that contains descriptions of the available data, reasons for changes in condition and expectations for future values of condition, is required on the last working day of the month. In addition to the monthly condition report, National Highways produces a Dashboard for all the network Performance Indicators. This Task includes the provision of the information used in the reports and a draft commentary on the change in condition to aid the preparation of the Dashboard Report for pavement network condition metrics.

The aim of this Work Package is to continue the monitoring and reporting of the pavement condition indicators and to demonstrate the behaviour of the indicator and how it meets National Highways' business needs. This will also allow National Highways to demonstrate network condition and the performance of the indicator to its stakeholders.

Introduction of the Ride Quality PI embodies one commitment National Highways has to improve customer experience of the SRN. Closely related to this is the quality of installed asphalt surfaces, which are subject to quality assurance processes on completion to measure texture depth and regularity against established thresholds. Until now, these methods of quality assurance have been manual, namely volumetric patch testing and the rolling straight edge. Work has progressed in recent years to enable assessment of these installed surface characteristics by vehicle-based lasers which offer several advantages, particularly a more comprehensive assessment of the installed surface and a safer working environment for technicians who conduct the testing. Introduction of the laser-based techniques is well progressed, but work is required to progress towards full implementation.