Ceredigion council is to be more proactive with the maintenance of its roads.
A move towards “planned maintenance more than reactive maintenance” forms part of a new plan for the inspection of Ceredigion’s roads.
A draft code of practice for highway safety inspection and response on county roads was examined by Ceredigion councillors at thriving communities overview and scrutiny last Thursday, 15 July.
Questions were raised about numbers of vehicles recorded on some roads, particularly around Aberystwyth, as well as the potential costs to the authority in ensuring roads are up to standards, reports Cambrian News.
The committee heard that the figures are not “comprehensive”, but estimates predict the volume of traffic and cost will be reduced with more frequent inspections on busy roads “that lead to maintenance work prior to it becoming a problem, planned maintenance rather than what we are doing now which is reactive maintenance”, said Cllr Dafydd Edwards, Cabinet member for highways.
It was said that using traffic levels rather than classification of roads may mean that some rural roads are inspected more frequently than they are now due to the volume of vehicles.
Caroline Wride, service manager, said there are 50 operatives covering Ceredigion’s roads, 25 in the north and 25 in the south, with a “huge number of service requests coming in and a huge numbers of defects coming in from the inspections we have to prioritise”.
“Once the code is approved, new inspection regimes will need to be created. The service’s Highway Asset Management Plan and the Asset Management System will need to be updated and system reports amended as appropriate to reflect the requirements of the new code,” a report to committee states.
The report adds: “The primary aim of the code is to ensure that inspection, defect, and suggested repair details are correctly assessed and accurately recorded, together with subsequent details of actual repairs undertaken.
“All those involved in this process must be conversant with the contents of this document in order to ensure a consistent understanding.”
