"One million square metres" worth of pot-hole and road repairs in the East Riding

A MAJOR ROAD SURFACE REPAIR and dressing programme will soon be completed on the East Riding’s roads after the worst winter in 30 years according to John Skidmore, the East Riding Council's head of Streetscene Services.

The programme started on 9 May and will be complete by the middle of this month. John Skidmore commented:

“In that time our highways teams will have laid in excess of one million square metres, which equates to an area the size of 220 football pitches. The work was earmarked to take a further few weeks, but the repair teams have got on so well with it that they should have completed the programme by 15 August."

The damage to the 3,500km highway network this past winter was so severe that many roads needed emergency repairs. The council applied for, and received additional government funding to enable the council’s highways engineers to carry out the surface dressing programme to repair damage and replace thousands of temporary pothole repairs.

Surface dressing is an important road maintenance process which has four main purposes: it seals the surface; it provides texture and skid resistance to an existing worn surface; it arrests disintegration; and, looks better than lots of patches.

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Potholes being repaired - but keep reporting them!

TEAMS ARE WORKING THROUGHOUT THE EAST RIDING to repair the damage caused to our roads as soon as possible, reports the East Riding Council.

Damage to the roads was caused by the third successive severe winter, which this year recorded the lowest ever temperatures. As a result more council staff than ever have been working to make the repairs needed to roads which are part of a 3,500km (2170 mile) highway network from Flamborough Head to Pollington and from Sledmere to Spurn Point.

The repair programme is expected to last until late March when it is hoped the weather will improve.

Councillor Stephen Parnaby, OBE, leader of East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said:

"In some areas, we have extensive damage on some roads and, in others, a small number of potholes. Our response is being led by the highway engineers' inspections and information from councillors and residents across the East Riding.”

Work needed ranges from repairs of a single pothole to full repairs of a route. The repairs are being prioritised based on how severe the defects are and how important the road is.

The repair programme is a two-pronged response and teams are set up to undertake two forms of repair. Responsive pothole teams are filling holes identified by safety inspections, reports from councillors, the public and others. Where roads are particularly affected by numerous defects patching teams are following up to undertake longer-lasting repairs.

Members of the public can report defects requiring repair using the highway customer care line on 0845 600 1666, by email to highways.customer.care@eastriding.gov.uk.

Residents can also report local potholes via FixMyStreet.

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More Resources to Pothole Repairs - but do they require potloads more money?

ROAD REPAIRS ARE SET TO GET A BOOST as the East Riding Council increases the number of teams carrying out work across the area following the Big Freeze. But not everyone is confident that the road system can be repaired in the long term.

From today (Monday, 10th January 2011) 14 teams of council workers, an increase of 4 teams, will be responding to reports of damage to the East Riding’s 3,500km (2,100 miles) of roads. 

Councillor Matthew Grove, portfolio holder for highways and emergency planning, said: “December’s weather was among the most severe on record and it has taken a toll on our roads. We are allocating additional resources in responding to the damage. Our highways engineers are continually inspecting the network and updating our schedule of repairs and including those reports from members of the public. To repair the entire network is likely to take some time, even if the severe weather doesn’t return and cause further damage and hamper the repair work." 

However, Driffield Councillor Paul Rounding has expressed concern to the Driffield Times that the scale of the problem is so massive that it is only a matter of time before the roads crumble again. “What they are doing now is only a temporary measure because it’s a specialist job and it’s expensive. You can go for a quick fix and just fill it in and that will be it for a few months but you can guarantee it will blow out again”.

Potholes or surface damage to roads can be reported to the council's streetscene team on 0845 6001666 or by email to: highways.customer.care@eastriding.gov.uk

They can also be reported very easily on Fix My Street.

Pothole Facts from www.potholes.co.uk

• Potholes are a major factor in causing axle and suspension failure, which counts for a third of mechanical issues on UK roads and costs British motorists an estimated £2.8 billion every year.
• Authorities currently pay out more than £50 million in compensation claims due to poor roads.
• Road maintenance in England and Wales is underfunded by around 50%, or £1 billion every year.
• At current maintenance levels, the average frequency for a road to be resurfaced in England is once every 65 years.
• If all authorities were given the budgets they need to fix their roads, it would take English authorities 11 years to catch up with the current backlog, and Welsh authorities 16 years.

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