Safety inspections

As the highway authority for Birmingham, our aim is to keep the highway network, which includes roads, pavements and cycle paths, safe through carrying out regular safety inspections. The inspections are carried out by a team of qualified inspectors.

The Safety Inspections are designed to identify all defects likely to create danger or serious inconvenience to users of the network or wider community. The risk of danger is assessed on site and the defect identified with an appropriate priority response.

Highway defects are risk assessed by information that is provided to us and by safety inspectors who will exercise their judgement, discretion and training when deciding whether to record individual defects, and in which category to place them. Such judgements are based around a risk matrix.

When inspecting a road or if we receive a report of a potential hazard, we will review this based on the information available as to whether this needs immediate attention or are expected to need attention before the road will next be inspected.

If the defect requires attention but is not an immediate hazard, it will be programmed for repair which we aim to be completed before the next inspection, if the defects present are minor and are not considered to need attention, we will monitor when we next inspect usually within six months.