London’s Surface Assets Will Continue to Deteriorate as TfL’s Budget is Stretched

Many of London’s main surface transport assets, such as roads, tunnels and flyovers, will carry on to deteriorate as Transport for London (TfL) is working to gain the funds to cover the backlog of renewals.

The agenda from the next meeting of TfL’s programs and investment committee on 17 May show that the number of assets with interim measures, like speed or weight limitations, will rise for the eighth consecutive year in 2023-24, reaching 65.

Principal London assets that have had constraints set for several years contain the embattled Rotherhithe Tunnel, which requires key refurbishment and is only available to cars, the A40 Westway which has had its speed limit decreased since it requires essential bridge joint renewals and Gallows Corner flyover which has both a speed and weight limitation because of widespread steel fatigue.

TfL’s funding for asset renewals was substantially decreased in 2018-19 and 2019-20 after the government removed the London transport operator’s revenue grant. TfL planned to bring the funding back to sustainable levels the following year, however, this was scuppered by the pandemic, and investment declined to 79% of planned levels; £122M down to £97M. This issue persisted in 2021-22, with planned investment decreased from £184M to £122M to reflect the available funding.

TfL argues that it intends to ensure alternative funding via programs like the Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) Major Road Network Programme to assist with managing the cost pressures. Nevertheless, even with extra funding streams, it will have to make judgments about postponing project renewals, which could cause an increased risk of network disruption and asset restrictions.

The agenda pointed out: “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.”

As of now, the work will begin with the most crucial advancements, which have been sorted by a prioritization framework that uses six asset management goals: safety, service, customer and staff, environment, capacity and growth and finance. A work bank has been made that will see projects brought forward once needed.

TfL has budgeted for £98M to be spent on surface-level asset renewals in 2023-24. The main activities scheduled for the financial year comprise:

Because of the budget restrictions in 2023-24, there will be no headway on the Hostile Vehicle Mitigation Programme on the Thames Bridges. The budget for funding borough roads and bridges will be remarkably lower than in previous years, with only the highest priority progressing.

Potential vital renewals for 2023-24 could be as much as £135M, £37M above the £98M budget it is planning for. The committee’s agenda expresses: “This represents a workbank 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.”

Despite the negative forecast, looking at the spending on key surface asset renewals in the last financial year gives reason to be positive. The scheduled investment in surface-level assets for 2022-23 was £101M, but ultimately, TfL was capable of spending £117M on it due to advancing design work to allow accelerated delivery and utilizing budget availability from its more comprehensive investment program.

The essential outputs for 2022-23 comprised:

The 2022-23 surface asset renewal program had an efficiency target of £4.4M, which was more than met with a total of £6.1M efficiency savings made.