Evaluation of delays in technical approval of UK Highways Act Section 278 projects

This paper attempts to address the causes of delays to the legal and technical approval processes involved in the creation of agreements authorising works to public highways under s.278 Highways Act (1980) specific to Warwickshire County Council, UK, and whether the type of contract (JCT or NEC) or s.278 agreement (minor or major) has any tangible influence. A series of questionnaires and interviews were carried out on a sample group of individuals including designers, developers, construction lawyers and council engineers with extensive industry experience in relation to s.278 legal, technical, construction and adoption processes. The results revealed the key causes of delays, and therefore, the barriers to prompt and efficient approval processes, as the lack of communication between developer and local authority, inexperienced developers’ engineers, poor quality drawings and insufficient information in the local authority's design guide. These key factors are discussed and recommendations are provided to tackle these issues.