Cost of Tourist Singning
What Costs can Applicant expect to Pay
Applicants are expected to meet the costs associated with the provision of tourist signs. These costs are no different from the costs associated with the provision of traffic signs generally.
The overall cost of tourist signing can sometimes be high, due to the influence of the type of road on which the signs are to be installed and the distance to the destination. High speed roads such as dual carriageways and motorways require much larger signs than single carriageway local roads and there may be a need for a number of signs on local roads in rural areas where the distance between the trunk road and the destination is considerable.
Factors Influencing Cost of Tourist Signs
The cost of traffic signs can be significantly influenced by a number of factors including location, design, materials, manufacture and installation. Common examples of these considerations are set out below;
Location
Location can have a material and often significant effect on the overall cost of providing tourist signs. For example, where an applicant wishes signs to be erected on a motorway or other high speed road they should understand that the traffic management required for works on or adjacent to such roads will be significantly more extensive than that required on a remote lightly trafficked local road.
Design
Signs must be designed in accordance with existing statutory requirements and technical standards. Foundations and supporting poles require to be designed to withstand the wind loading likely to be experienced. This often results in a need for a sizeable concrete foundation. Where the diameter of the sign poles and the speed of traffic on the road exceeds certain thresholds, the poles must be designed to be either ‘passively safe’ or the sign must be protected behind a safety barrier.
Materials
The materials used in the manufacture of traffic signs are subject to the EU Construction Products Regulation (CPR), which makes it mandatory for sign manufacturers to apply CE marking to their products.
The use of cheaper, non-compliant materials or non-compliance with standards or statutory requirements is not permissible for brown tourist signs located on public roads.
Manufacture and Installation
The manufacture and installation of traffic signs must comply with the relevant standards which specify, amongst other things, the retro-reflective requirements of sign face materials and the structural requirements of signs, sign supports and safety in use, including vehicle impact.
The requirements of safe working practice require the provision of appropriate traffic management to ensure the safety of both road users and road workers. Working on the strategic road network may on occasion require multiple lane and day or night time closures. Traffic management may be required during the excavation and formation of foundations, erection of posts, and the fixing of the signs. To allow the foundation to properly set, it is often necessary to return to the site at a later date to fix the sign to the poles.
Figure 2 sets out the key elements that can influence the cost of signs. Suggesting that the influence on the overall cost increases as the elements are listed (from low to high), in the order:
Key Elements Affecting Sign Costs
- Application
- Sign Design
- Sign Manufacture
- Safety Fencing or Passive Safe Posts
- Traffic Management
- Sign Installation
The costs of providing tourist signing can vary greatly depending on these elements which can have a significant effect on the nature and complexity of the application.
Where a tourist destination is accessed from the local road network it shall only be signed from a trunk road if continuity signing will be provided on the local road network from the trunk road to the tourist destination. The number of signs required will be dependent on the distance to the tourist destination.
Indicative costs (inclusive of VAT) have been provided in Table 1 to allow applicants to have an appreciation of the variations in costs of providing tourist signing on the trunk road and motorway network to a tourist destination.
|
Tourist Sign Location |
Cost of Providing Single Brown Tourist Sign (2024) |
|
60 mph Single Carriageway |
£ 5,477 |
|
70 mph Dual Carriageway |
£ 9,553 |
|
70 mph Motorway |
£11,293 |
Table 1 - (refer to Appendix A for breakdown of costs)
Ownership, Control, Maintenance, Removal and Replacement
Whilst ownership of any tourist sign will remain with the organisation or individual who paid for it (generally the applicant), once a tourist sign has been installed on a trunk road or motorway it comes under the strict control of Transport Scotland. No alteration, repair, removal, replacement or other work to the sign will be permitted without the express consent of Transport Scotland granted through their Operating Company.
Transport Scotland will be responsible through its Operating Company Contracts for the general maintenance of tourist signs, including cleaning and the operation of any flaps or covers. These operations will be undertaken by the Operating Company at no additional cost to the owner.
The owner of a tourist sign will be responsible for the cost of replacing the sign when it reaches the end of its serviceable life. Purely as an indication of the life expectancy of a sign, properly manufactured and erected traffic signs are typically expected to last around ten years before they need to be replaced.
Transport Scotland reserves the right to modify, replace or remove tourist signs at any time for traffic management, safety or other reasons. If it becomes necessary to remove a tourist sign within the first three years from a trunk road or motorway (other than by reason of the closure of the destination) the owner will be entitled to make a claim for the reimbursement of the cost of installing that sign on a pro-rata basis for the outstanding period. No compensation will be payable after the expiry of the initial three year period.