Case Study: Cheshire West and Chester Council achieves a consistent, evidence-based highway management approach with Gaist

Cheshire West and Chester - Customer Case Study

Cheshire West and Chester Council, a unitary authority established in April 2009, manages a highways network of 2,280 kilometres of carriageway and 2,648 kilometres of footway valued at over £5 billion. The Council was struggling to interpret different condition survey types consistently, with SCANNER and DVI surveys giving conflicting conclusions and making it difficult to understand the true condition of the network and prioritise future investment. It needed a more detailed, accurate and holistic approach, especially for footways and cycleways.

Gaist provided a repeatable, high-detail condition survey solution through the RAMS Framework, drawing on experience from other authorities including Blackpool BC and Lancashire CC. In 2019, Gaist surveyed the entire network, including footways, and delivered data breakdowns into schemes and work categories that could be combined with defect, pothole and claims data. This enabled Cheshire West and Chester Council to create a three- to five-year programme of works, make better reactive vs preventative treatment decisions, provide evidence-based funding cases, and report condition data to the DfT; VideoView also helped identify early signs of failure on recently completed sites.

Cheshire West and Chester Council

Andy Bithell

Network Management Commissioner