Rental speeds repairs, says Dip
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• Repairs on Britain's motorways are being completed on average 38% faster because of the Government's lane rental scheme, claims Peter Bottomley, roads and traffic minister.
Since 1984, when the Government introduced the scheme, 12 motorway repair programmes have been undertaken on a lane rental basis. All of the repairs have been completed ahead of schedule, with one repair scheme between junctions 16 and 18 on the MI in Northamptonshire completed in half the expected time.
Under the lane rental scheme, contractors estimate the time they will take to complete a job when they tender for work.
if, in completing the work, they finish before the day they originally estimated, they receive a bonus from the Government of up to £40,000 a day. If, however, the work takes longer than expected the contractor pays a similar amount in `rental' to the Government. So far no contractor has failed to meet his estimate.
Bottomley claims that the scheme has saved 499 days of delays on British motorways, and cut the cost of motorway repairs by 20%. Overall, more than £1,600,000 has been paid to contractors in the form of bonuses, but Bottomley says this has been balanced by savings in monitoring costs for the Department of Transport.
He says that money saved through the lane rental scheme is being redirected into further motorway maintenance work, so speeding-up the motorway maintenance programme.
In the coming year, more than half of the major motorway maintenance programmes are due to be completed under the lane rental scheme.