Collection

New Roads & Street Works Act 1991: Highways England responsibility

Under the New Roads & Street Works Act 1991 (NRSWA) Highways England is the Highways Authority for the strategic road network.

Sections of Highways England’s roads fall within Local Highways Authority (LHA) areas, but the LHAs have no responsibility as a highway authority or street authority for the Highways England road network.

Highways England employs Managing Agent Contractors (MACs) and Asset Support Contracts (ASCs) to manage its roads, known as the strategic road network, in given geographical areas.

Highways England has also appointed a number of Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) or Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts for specific roads in MAC areas.

These MAC/ASC/DBFO/PFI contractors have authority to exercise Highways England’s legal powers and obligation under the Highways Act 1980 and New Roads & Street Works Act (NRSWA) 1991.

The Highways England network map shows:

  • the roads that make up its road network
  • operational areas and general contact details of Highways England contractors, DBFO and PFI companies.

The Trunk Road Street Gazetteer

All notices under NRSWA identify the street the notice relates to by using the National Street Gazetteer (NSG). This is available to authorised users from the NSG web site.

The NSG is made up of -

  • The Local Street Gazetteer (LSG). LHAs collectively produce the LSG
  • Trunk Road Street Gazetteer (TRSG). This is the Highways Agency’s own gazetteer of the strategic road network.

For completeness, TRSG streets in any particular LHA area also appear in the LSG for that area. However, these streets may be named differently between the LSG and the TRSG -

  • LSG uses street names or location descriptions
  • TRSG uses road numbers

When serving a notice under NRSWA on Highways England as authority for the strategic road network, you must use the TRSG version of the street reference.

Highways England Operational District file holds specific street work contact details for each MAC/ASC/DBFO/PFI for undertaker use. This is part of the TRSG available from the NSG website.

Contact us - NRSWA@highwaysengland.co.uk

*[The Trunk Road Street Gazetteer *[NSG]: National Street Gazetteer *[LHA]: Local Highways Authority *[LSG]: Local Street Gazetteer

Installing apparatus in a highway - Section 50 licence NRSWA 1991

Network Occupancy Management (NOM) - Undertaker's compliance

Works on Local Highway Authority networks

Published 7 October 2014