Whilst investing this additional £500million highways funding into addressing the immediate pothole issue, consideration should also be made into investing into preventative maintenance, otherwise further roads will fall into decline in the future, according to the Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA).
Additional funding for highway maintenance announced in the Autumn Budget, presents an opportunity for local highway authorities to maximise return on investment, by not only repairing potholes and resurfacing roads that have reached the end of their life, but by also investing in surface treatments, said the association.
Preventative maintenance strategies offer demonstrable cashable and carbon savings both in the immediate and longer term, whilst also supporting outcomes linked to managing road condition. This is achieved through sealing and prolonging the life of roads, to avoid them falling into disrepair in the future, which results in the formation of potholes.
The association said that whilst more money for fixing potholes is welcome, the industry has to move away from a reactive only cycle, which in many cases has evidently proved unsuccessful over the past 10-12 years. There needs to be a change to a more balanced approach of preventative maintenance, to compliment pothole repair and end of life replacement activities.
Even with newly resurfaced roads, potholes will eventually start forming unless these new roads are protected and sealed whilst still in the earlier phases of their life. The only way of preventing this is to preserve them with surface treatments.
The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has pledged an extra £500 million for highway maintenance in the Labour government’s first budget for 14 years.
This will bring the total amount for highway maintenance in England this year to approximately, just over £1.625 billion.
Funding will be devolved to local authorities next year with exact allocations to be decided.
Mike Hansford, Chief Executive of the RSTA said: “Authorities should also be encouraged to consider alternative methods to asphalt replacement/reconstruction for end of life, failing roads; instead repurposing existing asphalt and granular materials where appropriate, through methods of recycling. This is both more cost effective and lower carbon, than only replacing asphalt.
“Where asphalt is required to replace failing roads, geosynthetics also offer an opportunity to reduce the depths of asphalt being replaced, again further saving on cost and carbon.
“This additional funding should also support a proactive approach of permanently repairing existing road defects, through lower carbon patching solutions such as thermal, spray injection, screed type patching, and specialist materials around ironwork, to compliment areas where conventional asphalt patches are required.
Developments in road survey technology, sensors, and data offer authorities the opportunity to quickly identify localised failing areas, for targeted, proactive and planned works,” added Mr Hansford.
If local authorities and their private sector contractors adopted a more proactive and preventative approach, the life-expectancy of a road in the UK could be increased, and the formation of future potholes significantly reduced. This approach would mean central government would eventually be spending far less on reactive repairs such as filling in potholes by adopting a ‘prevention is better than cure’, national best practice approach to highway maintenance funding.
“There are local highway authorities who have already adopted these best practice, preventative strategies, who are reporting positive outcomes, reduced costs and carbon usage.
It is important that this evidence from these local highway authorities is shared, to build knowledge and confidence in the use of these preventative treatments, so asset managers and engineers can make more informed strategic or maintenance decisions, said the RSTA.
“The RSTA are running a series of campaigns to share knowledge and experiences of how surface treatments have successfully supported a preventative maintenance approach to road maintenance, and will be running a series of other initiatives aimed at improving knowledge and understanding, so more informed choices can be made. Anyone wishing to learn more, should make contact with the RSTA, view our free to download Codes of Practice notes on our website for each of these treatments, or attend our free technical training days” added Mr Hansford.
