Cat's eye road markings on M8 Motorway: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/01308
Date received: 14 June 2017
Date responded: 21 July 2017

Information requested

"I was driving recently on the M8 Motorway on the section to the east of the newly constructed section when I was concerned that the cat's eyes do not appear to be working properly.

Please let me know:

1. Do the cat's eye road markings on this stretch of road comply with all relevant regulations?

2. Frequency of inspections carried out to check the cat's eyes are functioning correctly.

3. Date of last such inspection.

4. Outcome so far as it relates to the cat's eye road markings."

This was then clarified to "The section of motorway involved is between Junctions 5 and 6 – westbound."

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

The section of M8 referred to in your request partly falls under the responsibility of Amey, the Operating and Maintenance contractor and partly under land for the M8 M73 M74 Motorway Improvements Project, which is being constructed on behalf of Scottish Ministers by Scottish Roads Partnership (SRP). I have separated the responses in the table below for ease of reference.

Question	Amey	SRP
Do the cat's eye road markings on this stretch of road comply with all relevant regulations?	The reflective road studs complied with the relevant standards at date of last inspection.	The reflective road studs between J6 and J5 within the new works area were replaced as part of the new works and they comply with the relevant standards.
Frequency of inspections carried out to check the cat's eyes are functioning correctly.	The frequency of inspections is 6 monthly.	The frequency of inspections is 6 monthly.
Date of last such inspection	6 February 2017	29 April 2017.
Outcome so far as it relates to the cat's eye road markings	Please see attached report.	There were no defects recorded in relation to the reflective road studs in this area as they had only recently been replaced as part of the new works.

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Inspection report - FOI-17-01308.pdf

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