Technical review and inspection

S278 & S38 Works – Information on technical review and inspection

A Section 278 Agreement is used to cover any proposed works on the existing public highway. New roads and paths that are to be adopted but are on private land, are covered by a Section 38 agreement. Severn Trent Water needs to agree any drainage works.

All works need to be designed to meet Council and national guidelines.

For drawings to be considered, we need three hard copies and an electronic copy (PDF) showing the following.

  1. Red line site Plan: scheme layout to a scale of not less than 1/500 showing roads and development. The drawing must show site boundaries of the land owned by the developer.
  2. General Arrangement Drawing: road layout to a scale of not less than 1/500 showing the changes in type of construction, kerbing layout, the lines of highway drains, positions of gullies and manholes, all widths of roads, footways, footpaths and verges and all radii. The drawing must also show the extent of the works proposed for adoption, which must include all visibility splays. Any existing PROW needs to be shown on these drawings.
  3. Drainage Drawing: Drainage layout to a scale of not less than 1/500 showing site chainages, the lines of drains and sewers, the positions of manholes and connections and the pipe sizes, gradients and bedding types. The drawing must also indicate the catchment areas (coloured) used in the calculations of the highway drainage systems and indicate the works proposed for adoption. Also, any drainage easements for proposed adoptable highway drains must be clearly indicated.
  4. Manhole schedule with construction details: Manhole schedule showing cover levels, invert levels, depths to invert, depths to soffit and types of manholes and covers.
  5. Longitudinal Section Drawings: Longitudinal sections of the roads, drains and sewers showing existing ground levels, proposed road levels (at not greater than 20m intervals); invert levels and manhole cover levels. The scale of the sections shall be not less than 1/500 (1/200) horizontal and 1/50 (1/20) vertical (if required).
  6. Transverse Section Drawings: Cross sections through the proposed roads at 20m intervals showing existing and proposed levels and the proposed gradients adjacent to the highway boundary. The scale of the sections shall be not less than 1/100 horizontal and 1/20 vertical.
  7. Construction details: Typical sections showing all construction details.
  8. Traffic Signs and Road Markings Plan: Layout plans showing traffic signs and road markings to a scale not less than 1/500 with Traffic sign schedules and details
  9. Traffic Signal Drawings: Traffic signal design and specification (If applicable).
  10. Structures Drawings: Details of highway structures with AIP, design and Check certificates (If applicable). In addition to the drawings a specification document will also normally be required.
  11. Street lighting Drawings: Street lighting layout design and details. A street lighting design brief and copy of the PFI lighting specification shall be issued to you on request.

We also reserve the right to ask for AutoCAD or similar electronic design drawings for review and checking.

Red Line Plan for Section 38 and 278 Legal Agreement

When the drawings have been approved, six copies are needed for the preparation of the Agreements, coloured as follows:

  • Roads – brown
  • Footways and footpaths – yellow
  • Grass verges – pink
  • Gully/gully connections – blue
  • Highway drains – blue (labelled “highway drain”)

Note: The boundary of the site owned by the developer must be edged in red.

Please submit plans for Section 38/278 Agreements with the area of land to be dedicated as highway hatched, with a corresponding key in the notes stating ‘Land to be dedicated by the Developer as a highway’.

There are fees for the preparation of the Agreement, approval of the drawings, inspection of the works during construction and the adoption of the works.

Drainage Design: Drainage works must be in line with “Sewers for Adoption” (6th Edition) as issued by Water UK. Drainage calculations are needed for all highway drains. These calculations should cross reference to the drawings submitted for technical approval and include bedding calculations. Developers should note that the minimum amount of cover to a sewer or drain within a carriageway is 900mm and 700mm within a footway.

Traffic Signals Design: Our Traffic Signal Team can be asked to carry out the design and specification work (fees payable). They will need to check and approve any design and specification submitted.

Street lighting Design: New information on the street lighting that we need for each development before it can be adopted is available on the website. These are not currently included in the design guide, but developers need to be aware and take standards into account.

Our Street Lighting PFI Contract Team can supply quotes for the design and installation of any street lighting. Please contact the Street Lighting PFI Contract Monitoring Team on 08085 834333 to discuss your plans. This can help to speed up the design approvals process, installation and the pre-adoption inspections that are needed.

The developer must submit the items listed below before the scheme can go on to maintenance.

  • The electrical test certificates for the apparatus installed and offered for adoption. If the test certificates are more than six years old, new tests and certificates will be required.
  • The Inventory Data for all lit apparatus installed. An Inventory Data Spreadsheet Template will be issued to the Developer by CCC (electronic copy of template will be provided via email). Within the spreadsheet, a separate sheet will be required to be completed for each road.
  • An “As Built” drawing of the street lighting installations. Providing there were no changes made during construction works, this can be the same as the Street Lighting Construction drawing, with the words “Construction Drawing” amended to read “As Built Drawing” with an amended drawing date.
  • A drawing showing details of the cable distribution network. (This may already be included on the Construction drawing).
  • A copy of the Required Standards(including the Standard Development Specification that was issued to the developer).
  • Written confirmation that the apparatus complies with the required standards
  • Confirmation of the name of the DNO/IDNO who installed the electrical connections into the lighting columns

If an IDNO is to install the electrical connections to the street lighting columns and associated assets the following information will also be required:

  • Confirmation that the name of the IDNO will be included on the cut-out inside the lighting column
  • Confirmation that the IDNO is officially recognised and provide the allocated Elexon ID
  • Confirmation that a Certificate of Unmetered Supplies will be provided to Coventry City Council Street Lighting PFI Contract Monitoring Team
  • Confirmation that the developer will terminate its agreement with their nominated electricity company for energy charges on the date agreed for adoption
  • Confirmation that the developer understands that CCC will nominate their own preferred electricity supplier for energy costs, and therefore 6 weeks prior to the date agreed for adoption, the developer will contact Coventry City Council for this information
  • the IDNO will need to submit a draft Connections Agreement to Coventry City Council Street Lighting PFI Contract Monitoring Team, who will then liaise with Coventry City Council’s Legal Team. A signed Connections Agreement will need to be in place between the IDNO and Coventry City Council before the street lights can be adopted and accrued into the unmetered supplies inventory for the relevant IDNO

Highways Development Control Team

Address: PO Box 15
Council House
Earl Street
Coventry
CV1 5RR