Traffic signals maintenance

Inspections and maintenance

Every year each installation will be inspected. This includes the physical condition of the controller, auxiliary equipment cabinets and other site hardware like poles and signal heads. We also carry out earth testing and clean the signal lenses.

In addition, every 6 years, a full inspection for electrical safety is carried out.

Reactive maintenance

Our contractor Colas looks after our traffic signals. Standard contract hours are 07.30 – 18.00, Monday to Friday, with emergency cover provided at weekends.

Response times for attending a fault are:

  • Standard faults (e.g. lamp failure, detector fault) – 12 hours
  • Emergency faults (e.g. signals all off) - 2 hours

Fault attendance times and repairs are a crucial activity within the contract and are monitored and assessed through our Fault Management System.

Planned maintenance

We keep comprehensive records of our traffic signals assets and their maintenance. This enables us to plan maintenance and refurbishment works at the optimal time when the assets are close to the end of their serviceable life.

We recognise that traffic signals work can be disruptive and work hard to keep this to a minimum. We try to coordinate our works with other highways maintenance like planned resurfacing.

In the next 5 years, we have planned refurbishment works at 41 sites.