Caerphilly County Borough Council has installed a computer system to comply with the Traffic Management Act (TMA), despite delays to the publication of the act’s IT requirements.

Passed in 2004, the TMA requires gas, electricity, telephone and water companies to gain permission from local authorities before beginning work that involves digging up roads.

But delays to the IT guidelines, which were originally planned to be published by autumn 2005, mean authorities and utilities cannot properly prepare for the legislation.

A Department for Transport spokesman told Computing this week that no specific date has been set to release the guidelines, but says they will be ready later this year.

Mark Rees-Williams, Caerphilly’s chief engineer, says that despite the delays his department still has a responsibility to make plans for the introduction of the TMA.

‘You get used to the fact government guidelines can be delayed,’ he said. ‘You have to plan ahead to invest in systems and get them up and working.

‘It is all about organising who is using a piece of road space at a particular time. Often these roadworks projects overrun, and when they do it causes all sorts of problems. The new law will help deal with that.’

Caerphilly has installed an IT system from supplier Exor, which Rees-Williams says will be flexible enough to allow the council to adapt to the Traffic Management Act guidelines when they become available.

‘Because the system is simple and quite generic it can track a piece of work, whether it is a pothole or a much larger project on the roads,’ he said.

The system will also help the council deal more quickly with potholes in roads and pathways that in the past have resulted in the council being sued.

‘The faster we can repair potholes, the more we can limit the number of people suing us for damages over them. This system has saved us huge amounts of time on things such as paperwork,’ said Rees-Williams.