Transport Assessments & Highway Appraisals

Civilistix Consulting Engineers have a vast range of highway experience ranging from scheme feasibility, highway costing, planning and carrying out negotiation with Highway authorities on behalf of our clients.  We have worked heavily in both public and private sectors and are fully compliant with all types of highway design standards using latest highway design software to provide robust, standardised and aesthetic designs every time.

Transport Assessments

The purpose of a Transport Assessment is to understand the impacts development may have on existing transport infrastructure such as roads and footways and how development proposals can be satisfactorily connected to existing transport infrastructure without causing detrimental impact. Where impacts are assumed, a Transport Assessment must identify how these will be addressed via mitigation measures.

Transport Assessments should be prepared in accordance with Local and National Planning Policy including “Guidance on Transport Assessments” published by the Department for Transport and typically would include the following key information;

• A Transport scoping Assessment agreed with the local Highway Authority, so the comprehensiveness of the report is known in advance.

• An appraisal of all existing transport infrastructure for all modes of transport.

• Calculation of proposed vehicular trips generated from the development site and how these trips would be distributed across the existing highway network (typically using junction modelling software such as ARCADY, PICADY or LINSIG).

• Understanding the impacts of additional development trips on the existing highway infrastructure and suggested highway remediation measures to address them if required.

On smaller sites, remediation measures would typically involve just the immediate transport network surrounding the site. On larger sites however, junction’s further way from the site may become over capacity and need to be upgraded to support development. To understand wider junction interconnectivity, junction models of the site and surrounding network may need to be prepared and simulations based on best practice assumptions carried out. The results of these simulations would inform offsite junction improvement.

Highway Access Appraisals

In support of either a Transport Assessment or as part of independent Highway Appraisals, we prepare link road and junction geometric plans including signalised junctions, roundabouts, ghost islands or simple priority junctions informed by vehicle tracking (see Vehicle Tracking Assessment).

This allows the technical acceptability of highway proposals to be known in advance identifying the land area new highway infrastructure would occupy and its associated visibility requirements. Furthermore, Access Appraisals allow the overall cost and delivery implications of highway works to be understood informing development feasibility studies and providing a suitable foundation for later S278/S38 Highway discussions and agreements to be sought (see S278/S38 Agreements).

As part of preparing a Transport Assessment or Access Appraisal, it may be necessary to obtain highway boundary, accident, speed survey and traffic volume data.