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Highway and drainage advice, reviews and checks
Not every job needs a full design. Sometimes you need an answer before you commit, a second look at a design someone else has prepared, or an independent check before it goes to the highway authority. Every review is carried out by one of our directors, each with over 15 years' experience in highway and drainage design.
We work for developers, planning consultants, architects, consultancies, contractors and highway authorities.
Access appraisals for planning
If your planning application needs to show that a site can be accessed safely, we prepare the access appraisal: the access layout, visibility splays, swept paths for the vehicles that will use the site, and a short report the highway authority can assess.
We work for developers directly and for planning consultancies, and design to the highway authority's own standards in Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire and neighbouring councils.
Scheme advice
Early-stage advice and access appraisals. Before land is bought or a layout is fixed: whether the site can be accessed, what visibility can be achieved, what form of junction is likely, and where the drainage can outfall. We set out what the highway authority is likely to ask for, so the layout starts from the right constraints.
Second opinions. When a highway authority comment, a design or a cost doesn't look right, we look at it and tell you whether it stands up, and what the options are.
Departures strategy. Where a scheme can't meet DMRB in full, we identify the departures from standard early, set out the case for each one, and agree the approach with the highway authority before detailed design starts.
Advice is given by call or meeting, as a marked-up layout, or as a short technical note.
Design reviews
Client-side review. A review of a design prepared by others on your behalf, against the standards, the brief and how it will be built. Findings come back ranked by risk, so you know what needs fixing first.
Due diligence. A review of the highway and drainage position on a site before you buy, invest or commit. Anything we deliver in our own designs can be reviewed: the access and junctions, the roads, drainage and earthworks, and the adoption route, with the risks that affect cost and programme set out.
Independent checking
Independent design check. A check of a highway or drainage design by engineers who didn't produce it, for consultancies, architects, contractors and developers.
Pre-submission checks. Section 278, Section 38 and Section 104 packages checked before they go to the highway authority or water company, to cut down the rounds of comments.
Checks for highway authorities. Technical checks of developers' designs, when an authority's own team needs extra capacity.
You receive a comment tracker that is closed out round by round, a review report with findings ranked by risk, or both.