Tma Eton Readiness Assessment V0 2

Traffic Management Act (ETON Readiness Assessment)

This paper highlights the different scenarios and the possible approaches for managing the ETON readiness incompatibility between Promoters & Highway Authorities

Introduction

The legislation defined in New Roads and Street Works Act (NRSWA) 1991, Code of practice for the Co-ordination of Street Works, Works for Road Purposes & Related Matters and Traffic Management Act (TMA), 2004 mandates Promoters to issue electronic notices to Highway Authorities (HA) and other interested parties for every excavation or opening that is required to be undertaken in the publicly maintained highway (carriage way, cycleway, bridal way or foot way).

Considering the above concerns, it has been deemed essential to conduct an assessment of various scenarios that may arise due to lack of ETON 4.0 readiness by either Promoters or HA or both by 1st April, 2008. This paper discusses the key TMA considerations and assessment of possible scenarios due to unavailability of TMA compliant ETON 4.0 system.

TMA regulations are set to come into effect on 1st April 2008, and it mandates the management of notices in electronic form. In order to manage notices in electronic form, it is vital for both Promoters and Street Authorities to move from ETON 3.0 to the ETON 4.0 systems. However, the EToN Developers Group (EDG), Councils and Promoters have raised concerns with DfT over the following aspects † • • •

Inconsistencies in the ETON Technical Specifications Under current plans, HA would face technical difficulties in linking to Promoters IT systems EDG have very less time to develop the TMA compliant ETON systems

† “Road works planning IT law ‘unworkable’”, Computer Weekly dated 23 Oct, 2007

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TMA ETON Readiness Assessment

Are we ready for the Change Over?

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TMA ETON Readiness Assessment

Key TMA Considerations - What do the Regulations state? Codes of Practice (Section 8.3.1) Notices may be given electronically or in paper form and must comply with the requirements set out in the Technical Specification for ETON. A notice sent by fax is considered as a paper notice. Paper notices are subject to a registration fee in accordance with the Street works (Registration Fees) (Regulations) 1999, SI 1999, No.1048. The regulations include a sunrise provision of April 09 for all statutory undertakers and authorities to move to an electronic noticing system that conforms to ETON Technical Specifications. Other Activity Promoters, such as those operating under Section 50 of NRSWA, will be encouraged to move to an electronic noticing system within 5 years of publication of this code. Recipients of certain notices (or copies) (e.g. Transport Authorities) are unlikely to have access to ETON; hence these will have to be provided either by email/post.

Transitional Arrangements • •

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Existing systems should not be used 4 months after new regulations come into effect Works noticed before 1st April, 2008 may need ETON 3.0 (current) systems; in most cases ‘4 months’ period of dual use must suffice Small number of works may need more than the prescribed 4 months transition. These are exceptions that need to be addressed one-on-one between Promoter & Authority. Options may include ƒ ETON 4.0, though system validations may prohibit use ƒ ETON 3.0 notices ƒ Manual (paper based @ no fee)

ETON Specifications (Section 9) Need to ensure noticing system compatibility between ‘sending’ & ‘receiving’ organisations

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TMA ETON Readiness Assessment

Scenarios Assessment Key Considerations [Common to all scenarios] 1) Noticing systems (Promoter, HA) have the ability to send and receive notices in both formats (ETON 3.0 & ETON 4.0). This is true of all products that comprise ETON Developers Group and most other bespoke noticing products in the market.

5) Permits are not considered in this assessment as the earliest technical capability to be available only by September/October 2008. Prior to that, all schemes anticipated to be implemented manually (paper based)

2) FPN Transaction Administration 3) Potential Technical Inability to make use of New legislative features like – Error correction notices, Works status correction notices etc in the event of use of ETON 3.0 4) User of ETON 3.0 mandates need for some product configuration to ensure “New” noticing timelines are reflected, however ‘data items’ cannot be reconciled, which means that if the noticing sender party uses ETON 3.0 to issue a notice, receiving party must configure its system to ETON 3.0 to be able to receive the notice. If set at ETON 4.0, it will result in failure. Note: Specific to consideration 1, most noticing products are such that promoters can send notices to one HA in ETON 3.0 and another HA in ETON 4.0 formats, similar analogy can be extended to HA to be able to receive notices from promoters, in a similar manner.

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TMA ETON Readiness Assessment

Given the above context, the following scenarios may be considered

Scenario 1 Assessment: Promoter – ETON 3.0 Ready & HA – ETON 3.0 Ready Given this scenario, the following are the probable steps to be taken, 1) Both parties have no choice, but to use ETON 3.0 2) Discussion required to discuss readiness timescales and accordingly define transition principles and associated governance 3) Depending on Transition & ETON 4.0 readiness timescales, it may be agreed that some notices could be sent manually (Fax/Email considered paper based), as part of transition to post TMA scenario

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4) FPN(s) Administration (Issue & Receipt) will have to be managed manually (paper based) 5) Mutual agreement and discussion around process and governance to handle Error correction notices, etc.

TMA ETON Readiness Assessment

Scenario 2 Assessment: Promoter – ETON 3.0 Ready & HA – ETON 4.0 Ready Given this scenario, it is prerogative of promoter to engage HA and explain reason for non-readiness. There may be three cases 9 Case 2A: HA refuses to budge & insists on ETON 4.0 9 Case 2B: HA accepts to receive ETON 3.0 and accepts promoter readiness timescales for ETON 4.0 9 Case 2C: HA accepts to receive ETON 3.0 BUT recommends timescales by when ETON 4.0 notices must be ready Case 2A Assessment: 1) Promoter can issue ETON 4.0 notices using fax/email (paper based) until April ’09. The potential impact can be ƒ Huge manual effort of people and associated infrastructure 2) FPN to be administered manually by promoter and HA. The potential impact can be ƒ Manual effort of people and associated infrastructure 3) Mutual agreement and discussion around process and governance to handle error correction notices, etc. The potential impact can be ƒ Likely to be paper based Given the HA impacts as well, it is unlikely this scenario may occur, but definitely a realistic possibility. Case 2B Assessment: Same as assessment for Scenario 1

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Case 2C Assessment: Same as assessment for Scenario 1 except that HA recommends transition time scales to migrate to ETON 4.0. If promoter NOT ready with ETON 4.0 then the implication can be huge/small depending on the time window and associated noticing volumes involved.

Scenario 3 Assessment: Promoter – ETON 4.0 Ready & HA – ETON 3.0 Ready 1) HA drives promoter deliberations 2) Recommends promoter to use ETON 3.0 3) Discussion required to discuss readiness timescales and accordingly define transition principles and associated governance 4) Depending on Transition & ETON 4.0 readiness timescales, it may be agreed that some notices could be sent manually (Fax/Email considered paper based), as part of transition to post TMA scenario 5) FPN(s) Administration (Issue & Receipt) will have to be managed manually (paper based) 6) Mutual agreement and discussion around process and governance to handle Error correction notices, etc

TMA ETON Readiness Assessment

Scenario 4 Assessment: Promoter – ETON 4.0 Ready & HA – ETON 4.0 Ready This is considered to be the ideal situation and no assessment is required because there is no issue in this context. However, the consideration around Permits still holds good.

About the Author Vamsi Majety ([email protected]) is a Business Consultant and Associate Member of the Street Works Solutions Group – Centre of Excellence (SSG COE) at Enzen Global Limited, UK.

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TMA ETON Readiness Assessment