The backlog of vital carriageway repair services needed to bring UK roads as much as common has reached a staggering £12.64billion, according to figures published by the Asphalt industry Alliance.
The AIA’s annual ALARM survey states that despite an average rise in highway maintenance budgets of four per cent last year, the amount being spent on resurfacing is down as council highways engineers direct funds to filling potholes. The AIA states this merely ‘addresses the symptoms, not the cure’.
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“Those responsible for preserving our local roads are fast approaching the point where they are no longer waving but drowning, stated AIA chair Rick Green. “They have a legal responsibility to keep our roads safe, but flat funding allocations to carriageway maintenance in real terms – and rising costs – indicates they have to make difficult options about keeping their networks open and safe today, versus improving structural durability for today and tomorrow.”
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“Local authority highway teams have a legal responsibility to keep our roads safe, but do not have the funds to do so in a cost-effective, proactive way,” he said. “As a result, while they report some minor enhancements in surface conditions, the structure of our roads continues to decline. Although surface repair services have a part to play in prolonging the life of local roads, short-term fixes, including filling potholes, is indicative of a network that is ‘on the edge’ and less efficient and sustainable when it pertains to materials usage and whole-life carbon emissions.”
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Anti-Pothole campaigner mark Morrell, aka ‘Mr Pothole’ showed the views of many motorists when he told auto Express:
