Potholes on the road from Woodstock (Debate)

Fri 31 Mar 2023, 12:37 (last edited on Fri 31 Mar 2023, 12:45)

Quoting from the Highwaysindustry.com website

"On National Pothole Day (15 January), the company is highlighting the fact that it costs at least 20 times more per square metre to fill a pothole than it does to resurface a road. Will Baron, product director at Keysoft Solutions, explains: “The backlog of potholes in this country has been well reported and blitzing these would probably use up the entire budget, diverting funds from planned maintenance, leading to poor quality infrastructure and yet more potholes in the long run. “Local authorities need to get out of this vicious cycle of reactive road repairs because as soon as you repair one, another one will spring up somewhere else. It is more important and cost effective to look at whole stretches of roads, which will probably include existing potholes anyway and will prevent more from appearing.

“For years we have been calling on the Government to give a long term spending plan for road maintenance and now they have done it. This should give local authorities some spending certainty so that they can take a planned approach to road maintenance, getting more value from their limited share of the £6 billion budget.”

On National Pothole Day, members of the public have been encouraged by organisers to send images of potholes to their local councils. Will Baron comments: “Whilst information from the public about road defects in their area is very useful for councils, Highways Inspectors still need to go out and assess any potholes reported so they can be prioritised alongside other maintenance strategies, such as surface treatment or even full reconstruction. Our advice is that local authorities need to continue to invest in their own road condition surveys. Modern automated survey techniques provide comprehensive data and when used with evidence-based systems, such as our KeyASSET HIGHWAYS software, help to prioritise maintenance activities, maximising the return on investment and can often be used to justify further funding.”

https://www.highwaysindustry.com/no-quick-fix-potholes/