Fixing the current road maintenance backlog will take local authorities 12 years based on today’s budgets, the Asphalt Industry Alliance has warned.
In it latest Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey, published today (3 April), the AIA welcomed the new investment in the country’s road infrastructure the government has made available from April 2015.
It added this would return road maintenance budgets to where they were before the 2010 spending review took place, providing inflation does not erode the benefit.
But it also warned that the ‘catch-up’ costs of getting the local road network into reasonable condition had risen from an estimated £10.5bn last year to £12bn now – its highest ever and the equivalent of £90m per local authority – and that the estimated time to clear the carriageway maintenance backlog at current budgets was 12 years for England and Wales and 14 years for London.
More than 2 million potholes were filled in England and Wales during the year, stated the AIA, but the damage caused by this winter’s heavy rainfall looks likely to have counteracted much of that work, it added.
