UK’s pothole problem deepens: TotalEnergies features in Construction Global

TotalEnergies has been featured in the January 2023 issue of Construction Global, discussing how early intervention and high-quality materials are key to long-term road maintenance.

Richard Ashton, Market Development Manager for Bitumen, looks at how innovative, durable materials such as TotalEnergies Styrelf (and its other leading bitumen products) can deliver ‘sustainability through durability’ and extend road lifecycles.

The safety of roads in England and Wales has been a particular area of focus for the industry this year. From the awareness campaign ‘Road Safety Week’ in November where the theme was ‘Safe Roads for All’, to the Autumn Statement where the Chancellor confirmed that there would be no cuts to roads maintenance funding or investments in infrastructure schemes.

However, concerns remain and recent evidence suggests that we’ve got a long way to go in ensuring that the road network is truly safe for all.

The AA recently issued a warning to drivers to beware of the road surfaces lurking underneath standing water this winter as it attended an extra 225 pothole-related breakdowns since the beginning of November. Evidently, there is still a pothole problem in this country and local road networks are unable to keep up with the maintenance.

The AA’s warning reflects the sense of urgency that is indicated by industry reports such as the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) ALARM - The Annual Local Authorities Road Maintenance Survey which was published earlier this year. The ALARM survey found that a total backlog of £12.64bn would be needed to fix local roads in England and Wales to an appropriate standard, despite a pothole being filled every nineteen seconds.

Filling potholes so frequently may seem impressive, but it is a symptom of failure not prudent highways asset management as it is simply addressing the symptom and not the root cause. Reactive maintenance is twenty times more expensive than preventive maintenance. The surface dressing treatments historically used to delay the onset of potholes have been declining over the last decade as the focus has shifted to setting KPIs around pothole reactivity.

Continue reading here.