Maintenance of M8 westbound Kingston Bridge: FOI release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
FOI reference: FOI/18/01162
Date received: 18 April 2018
Date responded: 17 May 2018
Information requested
The M8 westbound Kingston Bridge carriageway between junction 18 – 20 west bound.
A copy of your current road maintenance policy relating to that road. Please send me the full policy, but this should include details of the intended frequency of road safety inspections, how these inspections should be conducted and the maximum time between identification of a defect and repairs being carried out.
A copy of the road repair history (including all minor temporary infills or repairs) for that road from 7 Dec 2017 until 19 Dec 2017. Again, please send me the full road repair history, but this should include:
- dates of all safety inspections between 7 Dec 2017 and 19 Dec 2017
- details of how safety inspections were undertaken (walked or driven, speed of inspection vehicle etc)
- details of all carriageway defects identified, with description, date and time
details of how the authority handled these defects, what repairs were undertaken and the time between the identification of each defect and a repair being carried out.
Please could you also provide me with details of all temporary closures or restriction by Scotland TranServ or Police Scotland (relating to carriageway issues, not accidents) applied to the outside lane on the Kingston Bridge regardless of the reasons for the temporary closures between the above dates.
As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.
This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.
Response
- Transport Scotland's approach to the maintenance of the trunk road network is set out in the 4th Generation Term Contract for management and maintenance of the Scottish Trunk Road Network and our Road Asset Management Plan. Both documents are available online at the following links;
https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/35900/sw-combi.pdf
- Schedule 7: Part 1 of the contract provides an overview of inspections,surveys and defect defect categories and response times.
- Schedule 7: Part 2: Section 2.7 of the contract provides details of inspections and their frequency during winter.
- Schedule 7: Part 6: Section 3 of the contract details the inspections and their frequency for Structures.
2) Please refer to Annex A which is the inspection defect report for the M8 westbound Kingston Bridge carriageway between junction 18 – 20 west bound. This report includes the dates of inspections including safety patrols and details of defects.
3) Please refer to Annex B which is a record of road closures for the dates requested. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.
We have also applied exception 10(4)(a) of the EIRs to this question. The reasons why that exception applies is that Transport Scotland are unable to comment on road closures made by Police Scotland. However, you may wish to contact Police Scotland at foi@scotland.pnn.police.uk who may be able to help you.
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Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
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