Road management
Kickstarting our economic recovery with roads investment In May, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced that journeys on local roads, railways and motorways will be smoother and safer thanks to a multi-billion-pound infrastructure package The Department for Transport says that can benefit from smoother and safer journeys hundreds of millions of pounds worth with better connections for our future.” of upgrades have already been Welcoming the announcement made to the nation’s road Rory O’Connor, interim chief and rail networks during executive of the Road While the lockdown period, Surface Treatments p otholes with more planned Association, said: “The real pro are a over the coming weeks additional funding is everyon blem for and months. Although welcomed both for lockdown measures helping to address the the roa e who uses ds, they have been eased, we £11.14 billion local a partic p o are far from out of road repair backlog s e u the woods. However, and for its recognition injury t lar risk of o cyclis there will undoubtedly of the importance of ts be more cars on the roads having a well-maintained as people return to work, local road network for the shops and small businesses national economic well-being.” reopen and people begin to see slightly larger groups of people. Road defect targets The ‘multi-billion pound road and railway The announcement is particularly welcome investment’ will target around 11 million given research in March finding that only nuisance potholes, but will also see smaller one-in-ten local authorities are meeting improvements completed to upgrade their own target times to fix potholes and local networks, such as enhancing road road defects. The research from Cycling safety at key locations, the installation UK found that out of 85 local authorities of priority bus lanes, and the creation of who responded to Freedom of Information projects to help lock in improvements in requests, only one in 10 successfully air quality experienced during lockdown. repaired all reported potholes. North Shapps said: “There has been a Tyneside Council was one of the most monumental effort in every corner of the effective authorities, repairing all 39,258 country to slow the spread of the virus and identified potholes on time between 2015protect our NHS. However, the battle is not 19, while Wakefield City Council was the over yet and we urge everyone to keep up worst performer, managing to fill only 13 the good work and only travel when they per cent of reported potholes on time. need to. To help those who do have to use While no part of the UK performed well, public transport or get out on the roads one in six English authorities meet their to do their jobs, we’ve been accelerating target times of three weeks for non-urgent infrastructure upgrades to make sure that, potholes. However, not a single responding as we gradually reopen our society, everyone authority in Scotland or Wales achieved this.
Cycling concerns While potholes are a real problem for everyone who uses the roads, they pose a particular risk of injury to cyclists. At least 448 cyclists have been killed or seriously injured on our roads over the past 10 years, with three deaths in 2018, the last year with available data. The charity has suggested that this is only the tip of the iceberg, with most crashes never reaching the statistics if no police officer attends the scene. Mike Harper, former chief executive of the Road Surface Treatments Association, said: “Cyclists are amongst our most vulnerable road users. For them a deterioration in the road surface can result in serious, lifechanging injuries. There is currently a £9.7 billion backlog of local road maintenance, Despite the Chancellor’s recent Budget pledge to provide an additional £2.5 billion to maintain local roads over the next five years, the backlog, continued cuts in funding and the ever increasing use of roads means that local councils are fighting a losing battle and find it difficult to keep pace with the level of road repairs required. “The injection of additional funding is welcomed. However, the government needs to examine how to provide assured, long-term funding that will allow local authorities to carry out programmes of preventative maintenance that would keep roads in good condition and stop the potholes from forming the first place.” L FURTHER INFORMATION www.rsta-uk.org
Issue 27.3 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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