Birmingham commuters and transport department are unlikely to be compensated for the traffic chaos caused by last October’s Perry Barr underpass flood.
Cars and buses were left stuck in queues for up to five hours and shops and businesses in Perry Barr lost trade when a pump on the A34 Birchfield Road underpass failed.
Members of the council’s transport scrutiny committee criticised the response of both the council’s highways department and contractor Amey saying they had been slow to issue warnings, clear the flood and act to repair the fault - causing untold misery to travellers from the north of the city.
An inquiry into the debacle found that despite the flood being reported at 8pm on October 13, public warnings were only issued nearly 12 hours later after the morning rush hour had started and it was not until later that afternoon that the power failure was found, repaired and water pumped away.
Committee member Ewan Mackey (Cons, Sutton New Hall) said: “In the event of a service failure on this scale, does the city get any damages come back. We’ve had apologies which is all well an good, but this was a serious failure.”
He was told by Amey’s Birmingham highways contract manager Eddie Fellows said that there is an element in the contract covering ‘network unavailibility’ which may contribute to the company’s performance rating, but otherwise no compensation.
Coun Mackey replied: “There has been embarrassment, but Amey is getting relatively lightly. It is the City and the City Council that has taken the pain and taken the heat.”
His colleague Coun Tristan Chatfield (Lab, Oscott) added: “This is a key strategic road for north Birmingham, there are so few alternatives. The response should have been escalated that first evening, but it was 12 hours before anything was done. That was the crucial failing.”
The committee was told that electronic warning systems are now in place at underpasses to warn of power failure and special pumping equipment, which had to be brought in from Bristol on the day, is now located in the city.
But council transport official Alistair Campbell said he is confident that a power failure will be deal with in a ‘much better way’ in future.
He said that they are unable to establish pre-set diversions as previously suggested by the committee, because there is simply no suitable alternative route to the A34.
“The A34 is a spectacularly good road, with that and the Aston Expressway travel from the north to the city centre is much better than other parts of the city,” he added.
