Highway Maintenance General Objectives
Routine highway maintenance covers repairs to footways
(pavements), minor carriageway repairs (e.g. potholes), cleaning
and minor repairs to street furniture. For example:
- cat's eyes and road studs
- gully (grid) emptying (i.e. drains in road)
- grass cutting
- minor footway and carriageway repairs
- treatment of weeds
- tree cutting
- repairs to traffic signs
- white lining
- winter maintenance (gritting)
We inspect all our roads and footpaths on a regular basis to
identify defects such as:
- potholes in the road of 2in (50mm) deep or greater
- loose cat's eyes and road studs
- loose kerbs and flagstones
- footway trips of 1in (25mm) or greater (e.g. raised flag
stones)
- broken ironwork (e.g. manhole covers or gullies)
The staff of the Highways Service are always pleased to
hear of any faults, as this helps them to solve problems more
quickly and may prevent a minor problem developing into a more
serious safety issue. These types of defects listed above will
usually be repaired, or made safe, within 24 hours of the
inspection being done.
We also do our best (within our financial constraints) to look
after the underlying structure of the road, as opposed to the
visible appearance of the surface. We do a range of technical
surveys to find out when such work is necessary. We try to do these
repairs before the foundations of the road fail completely as
restoration work is very expensive. Repair techniques range from
surface dressing (tar and chippings), which improves the skidding
resistance of the surface and provides a waterproof covering for
the underlying structure, through to complete reconstruction of the
road.
The Highways Service will always consult with Town and Parish
Councils when preparing programmes of work. Councils should tell us
about their suggestions and priorities and these will be taken
fully into consideration. All structural maintenance schemes across
the whole of the County are assessed and prioritised on a needs
basis. The number of schemes which can be funded in any year
depends upon the available budget.
