Derbyshire: County Council deciding whether to give roads £23 million revamp

Hundreds of miles of Derbyshire’s roads could be brought up to scratch if Derbyshire County Council decides to spend an extra £23m on road maintenance.
Guardian NewsGuardian News
Guardian News

Hundreds of miles of Derbyshire’s roads could be brought up to scratch if Derbyshire County Council decides to spend an extra £23 million on road maintenance.

A report will be considered by the council’s cabinet at a meeting on 5th August and details how the cash could be spent over three years from April 2015 to ensure their life is extended by 10 to 15 years by being patched and surface dressed.

Derbyshire County Council’s Deputy Cabinet Member for Jobs, Economy and Transport, Councillor Dean Collins, explains: “Over the past few years we have been spending more and more of our increasingly scarce budget on fixing potholes and not enough on maintaining our roads.

“This means that we have many hundreds of miles of roads that have just started to deteriorate and need urgent work to stop their condition getting any worse.

“This major investment looks to improve the condition of those roads and extend their life by 10 to 15 years. Surface dressing makes a road waterproof – and it’s keeping the water out that will keep the potholes at bay long-term.

“And surface dressing also helps to improve skid resistance so we’ll be helping to protect against accidents on the roads.

“We’re targeting our resources to achieve the maximum gain over the next 10 years.”

If the report is approved, the cash will come partly from reserves - £6m, partly from Local Transport grant - £3.5m and the rest - £13.5m would be borrowed.

Surface dressing is where a layer of bitumen is sprayed onto the road surface followed by a layer or two of stone chippings.

Any patching needed will be carried out first before surface dressing is applied.

Engineers will assess which roads will be included in the programme in a number of ways, these include:

- Regular laser scanning of roads that looks for defects on the road surface

- Detailed visual inspection by trained inspectors

- A machine survey of roads that looks at the level of wet skid resistance

- A survey of the roads that measures the strength of the road

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