Section 278 Highway Works in Dorset

What is a Section 278 agreement?

Section 278 of the Highways Act 1980 allows a developer to enter into a legal agreement with the local highway authority to make permanent changes to a road that is already public highway. It’s usually required by a planning condition or a Section 106 obligation, where a development needs new or improved access to work safely.

The developer pays for the design checks, the works and the authority’s fees, while the authority keeps control of the standard the road is built to. Once the works are finished and through their maintenance period, the highway stays the authority’s responsibility, as it was before.

Section 278 or Section 38?

The two are often confused. Section 38 covers brand-new roads built by a developer, such as estate roads, which the highway authority then adopts. Section 278 covers works to the existing highway. Many housing schemes need both, with a Section 38 agreement for the new estate roads and a Section 278 agreement for the junction where they meet the public road.

Typical Section 278 works

Every scheme is different, but S278 packages usually include some of the following.

• New site accesses, bellmouths and junction improvements
• Carriageway widening, realignment and right-turn lanes
• Kerbing, new and widened footways, dropped kerbs and tactile paving at crossings
• Highway drainage, including gullies, carrier drains and connections
• Ducting for street lighting, signals and utilities
• Sub-base, binder and surface courses, and resurfacing tie-ins to the existing road
• Traffic islands, pedestrian refuges and traffic calming

Our crews deliver the groundworks and civils side of these packages, including excavation, kerbing and footways, drainage, ducting, formation and sub-base, and surfacing.

How the Section 278 process works

Each highway authority runs its own procedure, but the route to a finished S278 scheme generally follows these stages.

1. Planning condition. The planning permission sets out the highway works the development needs.
2. Detailed design. The developer’s highway engineer prepares the design, which goes through a road safety audit.
3. Technical approval. The highway authority checks the design against its standards and approves it.
4. Agreement and bond. The legal agreement is signed, fees are paid and a bond or cash deposit is lodged to cover the works.
5. Construction. The works are built under the authority’s inspection, with permits and traffic management for working on the road.
6. Completion and maintenance. After the final inspection and safety audit, a maintenance period begins, usually 12 months, before the final certificate is issued and the bond released.

Highway authorities in our area

Who you deal with depends on where the site is. In Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole it’s BCP Council, and across the rest of the county it’s Dorset Council. Hampshire County Council and Wiltshire Council cover sites over the county borders, while motorways and major trunk roads are the responsibility of National Highways.

We build to the specification the relevant authority has approved and work alongside your engineer and the authority’s inspectors through to completion.