Commenting on the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance Survey, Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Director General Nick Baveystock, said: “Government’s commitment to providing our strategic roads network with long-term funding certainty is a positive step, however local roads remain in a poor state, exacerbated by the severe weather events seen over recent years.
"Clearly in this economic climate Government is faced with difficult choices on funding, but we believe there is scope for a more ambitious joint central and local government programme to finally clear the maintenance backlog. Approaches in Wales and South East England are delivering improvements, and while there is no “one size fits all” scheme, lessons can and must be applied.
“Government should also commit to a regime which moves from costly quick-fix work to planned, preventative maintenance - addressing road defects properly and on a long term basis.”
The aim of the survey is to build a picture of the general condition of local roads and the levels of maintenance activity as well as the levels of funding required to ensure that they are in reasonable condition.
ICE’s State of the Nation: Infrastructure 2014 report –a “scorecard” style report - will grade local roads and other economic infrastructure networks and set out improvements required ahead of the May 2015 General Election. The report will be published on 26 June.
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