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Rise in number of potholes filled - but permanent repairs needed, says trade body

Local authroities in England & Wales also see pothole compensation claims double

The number of potholes filled in last year in England and Wales rose by a third thanks to government cash aimed at remedying the problem – but a trade association says money spent remedying individual defects leads only to a temporary solution, and that roads will continue to deteriorate unless action is taken.

Other findings of the 20th Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) for the 2014/15 financial year include that outside London, the amount paid out in compensation due to potholes doubled last year to £20.2 million, with councils also having to spend on staff to handle those claims.

The trade body says that while road maintenance budgets are growing, one in six English and Welsh roads for which local authorities are responsible – and therefore excluding motorways and major trunk roads – are classed as being in poor condition. It adds that £12.6 billion is needed to restore local roads to a “reasonable condition.”

AIA chairman Alan Mackenzie said: “The government’s emergency funding for pothole and flood repair following last year’s wet winter has clearly contributed to the trends reported in this year’s survey.

“Essentially, the money spent on filling the 2.7 million potholes reported is wasted − it is inefficient and short term in its effectiveness.

“So, while we understand that the Department for Transport is promoting permanent repairs, the point remains that money would be better spent preventing potholes forming in the first place.”

Main findings of the report include:

£12.16 billion – estimated one-time cost to get roads back into reasonable condition.

£93 million per authority – estimated one-time cost in England to get roads back into reasonable condition (£25.2 million in London; £29.4 million in Wales).

2.38 million – number of potholes filled in England (160,000 in London; 130,000 in Wales).

£428 million – annual budget shortfall in England (£39.8 million in London; £80.8 million in Wales).

£3.7 million per authority – annual budget shortfall in England (£1.2 million in London; £3.7 million in Wales).

12 years – to clear backlog in England (15 years in London; 13 years in Wales).

64 years – average time before road is resurfaced in England (31 years in London; 59 years in Wales).

£32.1 million – total cost of road user compensation claims in England (£4.9 million in London; £3.8 million in Wales).

Mr Mackenzie continued: “The £6 billion of funding pledged between 2015 and 2021 is welcome, and hopefully will be confirmed by an incoming government. But the truth is that although it sounds like a big investment, it will only be enough for local authorities to tread water and it will do nothing to tackle the backlog or prevent continuing deterioration.”

“Research has shown that adopting an ‘invest to save’ approach pays dividends − with every planned investment in the road network providing long-term savings of more than twice the value.

“Moving forward, we need planned structural maintenance, resurfacing, strengthening and reconstruction,” he added.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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19 comments

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DrJDog | 9 years ago
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The biggest hole on my commute has just been filled in. It's a full lane wide crater and it looks like someone has just dumped two wheelbarrows full of Tarmac in and vaguely spread it around. It'll be back where it was in a month.

I wrote to my council about standards for filling in holes, asking about tarring the edges of repairs (the lack of that is the main reason for holes around here) a year ago and got no reply.

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spen | 9 years ago
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A trade body calling for more spending on it's products. Gasp, shock, horror. Who'd have thought it?

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gmac101 | 9 years ago
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Vehicles damage the road in proportion to the square of their axle weight. So HGV's do far more damage than anything else. On my commute the worst damage is on relatively quiet roads where HGV's turn into works gates on a regular basis.

I have been using the CTC "fill that hole" app and 2 of the 6 holes I have reported have been filled in! but not the worst one on my commute

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Nat Jas Moe | 9 years ago
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Pot holes get filled so that they become pot lumps. Now these are supposed to become level with traffic use. However on my daily commute on the A23 I'm still waiting after some 6+ months and a pot lump is just as bad as the pot hole.

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youngoldbloke replied to Nat Jas Moe | 9 years ago
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Nat Jas Moe wrote:

Pot holes get filled so that they become pot lumps. Now these are supposed to become level with traffic use. However on my daily commute on the A23 I'm still waiting after some 6+ months and a pot lump is just as bad as the pot hole.

Yes, many examples of this (in some cases ones I've reported to 'fill that hole') - you still have to take avoiding action, often placing youself in the same dangerous position as caused by the original pothole. Especially on fast busy roads where (as pointed out above) I assume the authorities expect traffic to do the levelling.

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Saturn5 | 9 years ago
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There is no good way to fix a pot hole, once a road has pot holes it's done for.

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Metaphor | 9 years ago
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Could the rise of the unnecessary 4x4 have anything to do with the degradation of the road surface?

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Tin Pony replied to Metaphor | 9 years ago
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Ive Considered buy one of these in my case very unnecessary 4x4 vehicles. The consideration ended when it was explained to me that due to the vehicle weight it would destroy the tyres every 6-9 months or 6-9K miles in my case. If its doing that to the tyres whats it doing to the surfaces the tyre contacts with?
If you want and environmental way to travel and need some nice clothing check us out.

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Simon E replied to Metaphor | 9 years ago
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Ramuz wrote:

Could the rise of the unnecessary 4x4 have anything to do with the degradation of the road surface?

No it's big, heavy lorries and, in rural areas, similarly oversized farm machinery.

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Saturn5 replied to Simon E | 9 years ago
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Simon E wrote:
Ramuz wrote:

Could the rise of the unnecessary 4x4 have anything to do with the degradation of the road surface?

No it's big, heavy lorries and, in rural areas, similarly oversized farm machinery.

No it is lack of resurfacing and the utilities.

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Simon E replied to Saturn5 | 9 years ago
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Saturn5 wrote:
Simon E wrote:
Ramuz wrote:

Could the rise of the unnecessary 4x4 have anything to do with the degradation of the road surface?

No it's big, heavy lorries and, in rural areas, similarly oversized farm machinery.

No it is lack of resurfacing and the utilities.

The evidence I've seen, stuff I have read and what I've been told by a Highways dept official contradict your assertion. I'm with gmac101 on this.

However, poor quality patching/repair won't help. In Shropshire my impression is that this has become significantly worse since the council outsourced the work to Ringway, a private contractor.

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Metaphor | 9 years ago
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Councils should organise a study group trip to France. Whatever they do to the routes nationales/départementales, it's working.

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mrmo replied to Metaphor | 9 years ago
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Ramuz wrote:

Councils should organise a study group trip to France. Whatever they do to the routes nationales/départementales, it's working.

Don't think they need to go and see, the problem is simply money, and spending it. If you don't bother resurfacing roads you get crap roads, spend the money and resurface and you have decent roads.

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gthornton101 | 9 years ago
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It's not all about quantity.

Whatever they are doing to fill/repair potholes only seems to last a matter of weeks (at best!) before the "filler" crumbles away and they start causing problems again.  102

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Man of Lard | 9 years ago
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They may well be filling more potholes than ever - but doing it when the potholes they're filling are full of muddy water doesn't strike me as a long term plan.

Couple that with the techniques employed (tip in some stuff, tread it down with some size 10s, optionally batter it with a shovel - move on to the next hole to fill) and the continued ineptitude of pretty much every contractor used to "make good" after any excavations for utility works. Both seem to me to be a long term "make work" plan (if I do a crappy job that fails in 3 weeks, I can be back here in 3 weeks to do it again - maybe even on overtime...)

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Beatnik69 | 9 years ago
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Makes you wonder what they're doing with all that road tax we don't pay...  3

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Simmo72 | 9 years ago
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You throw enough investment at it, the clever boffs will come up with solutions, then its down to the economies of scale to make it viable. prevention over cure...look on the web, there is quite a lot going on in this area, but no doubt the UK will be late in picking it up.

I'll give the repairs to my local roads that took place this week about 2 months before they are back to what they were

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djcritchley | 9 years ago
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Nothing new there then.

How about using used chewing gum to fill potholes, that stuff can't be shifted once it dries.  21

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fukawitribe replied to djcritchley | 9 years ago
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djcritchley wrote:

Nothing new there then.

How about using used chewing gum to fill potholes, that stuff can't be shifted once it dries.  21

From experience as a parent i'd also recommend dried, ex-soggy/pre-chewed Weetabix held place by squashed Sugar Puffs - nothing shifts that. I'm half convinced cockroaches are made out of some sort of Weetabix related something...

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