UK Highway Sector Schemes
UK Highway Sector Schemes for the construction of Motorways and other Roads In Northern Ireland and the UK.
Contractors, sub contractors, suppliers of road building materials and others involved in the supply of roads building materials such as surface dressing, bitumium and other road materials are now required to have an externally Certified Quality Management System (QMS) to ISO 9001:2000 and include within their QMS a specific set of procedures known as National Highway Sector Schemes (NHSS). This requirement is mandatory in the North of Ireland and the UK.
Tender document requirements from the Northern Ireland Dept of the Environment require that all suppliers of such services are ISO 9001:2000 registered and comply with the appropriate NHSS sector scheme.
UK Highways Authority National Sector Schemes are quality management schemes developed for the highways industry, including all motorways, dual carriageways and other roads in Northern Ireland and Britain.
Sector schemes complement ISO 9001:2000 the Quality Management Scheme and specify the training that operatives must receive to ensure that they work safely and to the highest standards. Some sector schemes do not involve the training of operatives, but deal with product conformity.
Highway Sector Schemes give the industry interpretation of ISO 9001: 2000 quality management system requirements for specific activities relating to the design, manufacture, supply, installation, maintenance and repair of road surfaces, road markings, vehicle safety fencing and general safety fencing, landscaping, highway electrics and traffic management on the national road network.
A Highway Sector Scheme is the ISO 9001:2000 interpretive document produced, written and maintained by a committee comprising of key representatives from interested groups including users of the scheme, local councils, trade associations and certification bodies, overseen by the UK Highways Agency. Such schemes are UKAS accredited, requiring that certification bodies demonstrate that they comply with the scheme including the requirement for competency of assessors.
Typical characteristics of a scheme document are a clause by clause interpretation of ISO9001:2000 including detailed training and competency requirements for contractors and operatives and specific quality plan requirements.
The compliance and registration to the schemes are generally mandatory for the contractors carrying out Highway Agency or Dept of the Environment NI work.
There are currently 24 schemes in operation or development that can be broadly separated into four groups:
- Fencing, landscaping and vehicle safety restraints – covered by schemes 2A, 2B, 2C, 3, 4, 5A, 5B and 18
- Road surfacing and marking – covered schemes 13A, 13B, 14, 15 and 16
- Lighting and electrics, and corrosion protection – covered by schemes 6, 7, 8, 9A, 9B, 10 and 19
- Traffic Management – covered by schemes 12A, 12B, 12C, 12D & 17
For a full list of operational schemes and to download the scheme documents visit the UKAS web site – details below.
For more information on the Highways Sector Schemes visit the UK Highways Agency website, below.
Lantra Awards, the UK based sector specific training body, maintains a schedule of suppliers for the National Highways Sector Schemes, details of which can be accessed from their website as can a copy of the Lantra Awards Specification of Training and/or Assessment for Centres, which describes what is involved in becoming a centre, and includes centre approval application forms. To request this document please email Lantra Awards directly.
It is important to remember that operatives, supervisors and others will have to have undergone sector specific training by approved Lantra Awards training providers. There are currently a number of such training providers available in Northern Ireland who can facilitate this training.
For example for NHSS sector scheme 12D “For Installing, maintaining and removing temporary traffic management on rural and urban roads” contains specific training modules for operatives working on traffic management activities. These workers, known in the scheme as Registered Traffic Management Operatives (RTMO’s) must have successfully undergone an approved training course to Module 2 as a minimum, completed the competency assessment and been issued with an identification card by Lantra Awards, the training body. Where relevant the person(s) shall be named in the organisation’s Contract Specific Quality Plan.
The UK National Highway Schemes are relevant to:
- Main contractors who work on the motorway and trunk road network
- Any contractors working on or beside roads.
- Manufacturers, installers and repairers of scheme products.
- Highway designers and consultants.
- Subcontractors.
- Industrial, commercial and private developers.
- Rail and inland waterways contractors.
Contractors and suppliers who wish to trade in Northern Ireland and are impacted by these schemes can contact the Construction Quality Assurance Ireland and NSAI partnership to discuss their Certification requirements. The CQAI/NSAI partnership is the leading Certification organisation in Ireland for independent third party certification. The CQAI scheme combines the industry specific Construction Certification body CQAI with the NSAI, Ireland’s National Certification Body.
Auditors are construction specialists and are trained to the requirements of the relevant NHSS scheme.
The CQAI/NSAI partnership offers registration against the main NHSS schemes and includes the UKAS accredited ISO 9001:2000 certificate in accordance with the relevant scheme(s).
Contact:
Fergal O’Byrne,
CQAI/NSAI Operations Manager,
Construction Certification,
NSAI.
Tel:++ 353 1 807 3962
Fax:++ 353 1 807 3844
Useful contacts:
Certification Services for this scheme contact CQAI/NSAI at: www.cqaireland.com
For NHSS schemes documents see UKAS web site: www.ukas.com
For Training centre contacts see Lantra Awards web site: www.lantra-awards.co.uk
UK Highways Authority see: www.highways.gov.uk
Last Updated - [31 Aug 2007 @ 12:23:14]
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Telephone: +353 1 807 3800
Fax: +353 1 807 3838
Email: nsai@nsai.ie
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