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• Traffic Incident Management Bulletin

February 2010

In December 2008 the Bulletin featured an article on the work the Highways Agency was carrying out to mitigate the risks associated with flooding on the network. This month, we provide an update to this project and how the Traffic Officer Service provided support to the emergency services during the recent flooding in Cumbria.

Background

Following the floods in Gloucestershire and other areas in the summer of 2007, an investigation commonly known as the 'Pitt Review' provided a series of recommendations to improve the strategic road network's resilience to flooding. The key driver the Highways Agency responded to was recommendation 45 of the Pitt Review:

The Highways Agency, working through Local Resilience Forums, should further consider:

• the vulnerability of motorways and trunk roads to flooding
• the potential for better warnings
• strategic road clearance to avoid people becoming stranded and
• plans to support people who become stranded

The Highways Agency responded to this review by engaging with its service providers to identify the extent of existing flooding problems and, through consultation with internal and external stakeholders, the potential mitigation measures which could be used.

Once identified, the Highways Agency planned to strengthen their resilience by improving existing contingency plans. It was proposed that as flooding required a multi-agency response, the plans would be developed alongside Local Resilience Forums (LRF). This would ensure that they were integrated appropriately with the Highways Agency's operational partners.

LRF liaison will be led by the Regional Emergency Planning Units who currently work closely with their local service providers to improve their region's resilience.

Collecting historical flooding information

During 2008, questionnaires were sent out to the Highways Agency's service providers requesting information on the location and extent of historical flooding events in their area.

These responses were collated and cross-referenced with maps provided by the Environment Agency which show regions of pluvial and fluvial flood risk.

• Pluvial or surface water/run off flooding - occurs when the level of rainfall overwhelms the capacity of the drainage system.
• Fluvial flooding - occurs as a result of high water levels in a river channel, which is caused when the volume of rainfall or water overwhelms the capacity of the ground and rivers to absorb it.

Areas with a high flood risk were identified by comparing both pieces of information. This led to the development of a series of indicative vulnerability maps for the whole of the network.

Since the accuracy and extent of available historic data varied, the data held on the maps is only indicative. It is now the responsibility of the Highways Agency's service provider to maintain these maps and update as further flood data is gathered and uploaded onto an online flood register, which is part of the Highway's Agency Drainage Data Management System (HADDMS).

Developing contingency plans

The next step will be to produce flooding contingency plans. An Area Management Memorandum (AMM) has been developed and is due to be published shortly. This will include recommendations to service providers on how the information contained in the indicative vulnerability maps should be used to develop the contingency plans.

Service providers are required to review the information provided and confirm their understanding of where the highest risk areas are by comparing the indicative vulnerability maps to their records. Any flooding information that has not been captured should then be uploaded onto HADDMS.

The causes of the flooding are also to be investigated, as different causes may require flooding to be addressed by various mitigation measures. For example, where flooding has occurred due to poor drainage, a change in maintenance frequency or practices may be used to address and mitigate the risk.

Role of the emergency planning teams

The Regional Emergency Planning Units are intended to be the point of liaison between the service providers and other stakeholders such as LRF.

Before the publication of the previous TIM article in December 2008, a seminar was held to brief the teams on the risks from flooding and actions which were going to be undertaken in order to reduce the associated risks.

A similar meeting took place in October 2009, where the Regional Emergency Planning Units were updated about the project's status, and their expected future involvement in stakeholder management and liaison within their regions.

Cumbria flooding

In November 2009, Cumbria suffered extreme rainfall which contributed to one of the worst flooding events in recent years. Homes were evacuated and people temporarily re-homed in local welfare centres, which had been established by the emergency services and others. In addition to this, roads were closed and bridges severely damaged, which led to many local towns becoming isolated from the local area's infrastructure, such as shops, schools and hospitals.

Much of the flooding in Cumbria took place on their local road network, operated by the local authority and parts of the all purpose trunk road which are managed by the Highways Agency's Area 13 service provider, AmeyMouchel. The M6, which passes through Cumbria, was largely unaffected and traffic continued to travel on both carriageways during the event.

Preplanning

AmeyMouchel carried out a number of planning activities to mitigate the effects of the extreme rainfall they were expecting. One these was setting up a severe weather desk at 0200 on the 18 November, well in advance of flooding events. This desk was manned around-the-clock until 23 November.

Planned works on the network were also stopped, and all resources were redirected to support Incident Support Units and incident response. During this period, AmeyMouchel logged over 100 separate incidents in their incident management database.

Media liaison

During this event, the North West Regional Control Centre (RCC) which is based near Warrington, Cheshire continued to provide media updates to all road users travelling on the M6 and those planning to use local road network in Cumbria. To assist with this, the RCC dedicated two hotlines: one into Cumbria to receive incident updates, and the other to the National Traffic Control Centre (NTCC) so messages could be communicated to the public through their various forms of media.

While managing the issues in Cumbria, the RCC continued to use information provided by their weather devices and local forecasts to identify additional severe weather risks to their network. This information was then used by the RCC to assess the impact weather conditions could have on their network and the implications on their level of resources available.

Dedicated taskforce

To assist with the management of the incident, the RCC dispatched a dedicated  taskforce, consisting of an Operations Manager and a Team Manager, to Cumbria to assist the emergency services and manage the effects of increased traffic on the M6 due to flooding. This proved to be useful in providing the RCC with regular updates from Cumbria and the effects the rainfall was having on the network, such as increased vehicle breakdowns. This led to the RCC contacting FMG Support, the Highways Agency's National Vehicle Recovery Manager, to ensure appropriate agents were contacted and informed about the conditions in Cumbria. This improved their response times and ensured vehicle recovery operators arrived with the most appropriate kit using the traffic officers on scene to evaluate what was required.

To aid the communications between Cumbria and the RCC, one airwave channel was dedicated to the traffic officers operating in Cumbria. The other continued to be used for the routine work being undertaken in other parts of the region. By making an airwave channel available it ensured all operational staff were kept updated with the latest information regarding the incident, and the pertinent activities and actions captured could then be communicated to the Silver Commander.

Joint working

During this critical period AmeyMouchel supported Cumbria County Council by providing mobile cameras, variable message signs and 4x4 vehicles. They also provided South Lakeland District Council with sandbags to assist in their flooding defence.

While AmeyMouchel prioritised their resources to assisting in Cumbria, their neighbouring service providers from Area 14 - Aone - and Area 10 - Aone+ - assisted them where they could. Aone covered incident response on the A66 from the county boundary to Penrith. They also offered additional ISUs to the Strategic Coordinating Group (SCG) but, at the time, these resources were not required.

Debrief outcomes

The subsequent debrief highlighted areas of strength and weakness including the need for the Highways Agency to develop stronger relationships and enhance communication channels both internally and with some external stakeholders.

The RCC stressed the importance of the control room and Silver Command receiving regular updates and information from the SCG - important when the teams are one hundred miles apart. This information is essential to assisting the Highways Agency's decision-making process and ensuring the most accurate information is communicated to road users.

The RCC identified the need to develop more robust relationships with Cumbria police. Due to geographical and logistical issues, Cumbria police are not co-located within the RCC, unlike their North-West partners; Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside. Greater Manchester Police are currently planning to co-locate. This has resulted in relationships with Cumbria not developing as quickly and strongly as others.

As a result, the Traffic Officer Service has organised a series of joint-operation meetings to give Cumbria a more detailed insight into the role of the Highways Agency at incidents, including the role of the service provider. Visits have been organised to enable groups from both organisations to share operational understanding and experience - including shadowing police and traffic officers, working in the service provider's Network Control Centre and weekly video conferences. It is proposed that once this phase has been completed, further meetings and visits will take place to further strengthen the relationships.

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