Weather extremes are taking an unprecedented toll on East Sussex roads and the Conservative-run county council is urging everyone to report where repairs are needed.
Claire Dowling, the Conservative county council lead member for Transport, says that the volatile winter weather has taken an inevitable and severe toll on our road network.
First, torrential rain in November (the wettest on record), freezing conditions in early December (one of the coldest divergences in north west European temperatures versus the 30-year average), a rapid thaw followed by further torrential rain and flooding. Over 100mm of rain fell locally in December.
Roads right across Britain have deteriorated as result of these conditions, with water freezing and melting in the road surface to create new holes or surface water eroding parts of roads. Both can leave serious damage.
Cllr Dowling points out that in East Sussex, like all other areas, we are working flat out to repair as much of this new damage as quickly as we can.
“Right now, we have around 2,000 reported potholes, which is approximately 1,200 more than we would normally expect with more reported all the time as winter continues”, she says.
What’s being done
In response, East Sussex has almost doubled the number of gangs working on road repairs (from 10 to 17) by diverting them from other highways work. They are working in all weathers and for longer hours, including at weekends. Over the last seven days they have repaired 700 potholes.
Most pothole repairs will be of the quality to be permanent but there will be times when our contractors need to make temporary repairs. This may be in emergencies or where it is not safe to carry out a permanent repair because of the speed of passing traffic or at a busy junction.
“We pay only once for each pothole fixed, even if it has both a temporary and permanent repair”, says Cllr Dowling.
There are times, including over Christmas and the New Year, when tarmac plants are closed and hot tarmac is not available. When this happens, the county’s contractor has to use a cold-lay material to repair potholes. This is specially designed to fill potholes and is applied to the manufacturer’s instructions but does not have the same appearance as a repair where the pothole has been cut out, lined, and filled with hot tarmac.
“We do not repair every pothole that is reported to us; only those that meet the intervention criteria in our published Guide to Highways. Guide to Highways (eastsussexhighways.com)
However, the Highways Steward may still refer a particular pothole, cluster of potholes, or stretch of road, for inclusion in our annual patching programme to prevent or reduce future damage”, says Cllr Dowling.
East Sussex facts
By the end of November, we had already patched 800 sections of road across the county, with 100 more sites to be finished before the end of March.
We are responsible for 2,000 miles of roads and 1,542 miles of pavements and cycleways across East Sussex, as well as hundreds of bridges, thousands of drains and road signs, 37,500 streetlights and nearly 2,800 miles of verge and hedges.
The county council has raised the 10-year road maintenance budget by 15% (£31 million) and invested an extra £5.8 million in road patching, pavements, and safety. But nothing can deal instantaneously with what we have recently seen.
"East Sussex County Council has invested an extra £8.9 million this year in the highways network", says Cllr Dowling. "This means we are now spending more than £40 million a year on maintaining it to the highest standard we can."
Report it, now!
We can only repair the potholes and incidents we are made aware of”, explains Cllr Dowling. “And we would ask you and your residents to please report any problems with the road condition to East Sussex Highways: Report a Problem https://www.eastsussexhighways.com/report-a-problem
