One-third of local roads are coming towards the end of their ‘structural life’ with risk of failure in the next 5 years, according to a new report.
In fact, 52% of local roads in England and Wales, which is about 106,000 miles of road, have less than 15 years of life left in them before they need replacing.
And as we all know, the condition of local roads has deteriorated in recent years with more road users than ever making more journeys than ever before putting strain on poor road surfaces.
The current backlog of road repairs in England and Wales totals just shy of £17 billion, with pothole repairs making up a significant portion of the budget given to local authorities for resurfacing and repairs.
These latest figures come from the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (Alarm) report, which has highlighted the issues with the short-term nature of repair funding.
Despite new funding being announced, much of the road resurfacing and repair work has barely made a dent in the backlog, with almost all highway teams reporting that there has been ‘no improvement in their network’ in the last year.
Much of the funding has gone into ensuring that the issues don’t deteriorate any further, rather than delivering noticeable improvements.
Do you think more needs to be done to improve local roads to help with road safety? Let us know in the comments below…
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