New teams to identify potholes in need of permanent repair on roads in Lincolnshire
Drought-damaged roads will be dug up, remixed and then re-laid as part of a £6.4 million investment in road repairs.
Four new crack teams are about to start drawing up a 'hit list' of the pothole-ridden roads they will fix first after highways bosses secured a major cash windfall.
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'Pain in the neck': It would take £300m to take all of Lincolnshire's roads up to standard
The new 'hotbox' teams are expected to repair damage along commuter routes such as the A46, A15, A158 and A17.
It comes after Lincolnshire County Council decided to use a £6.4 million repair grant to fix pot holes.
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The teams will use specialist lorries to pour molten asphalt into craters.
This is then mechanically compacted, creating a solid, permanent bond as it cools.
The spending will also include £1 million to churn up drought damaged surfaces and roll out the recycled material to make a new surface, a further £1 million for larger strips or patches and the same amount to fix wear and tear at junctions.
Motorist Karen Jones, 44, from Ruskington, who co-owns A & K Autos with husband Andrew, said the garage is getting five-to-ten customers a week with pothole-related damage to cars.
"Potholes are an absolute pain in the neck," she said.
"We put our son's car through an MoT and repaired part of the steering system, then he went over a pothole and completely wrecked it.
"In the village there's two huge potholes in Westcliffe Road and one in Lincoln Road that you have to veer right out to avoid.
"If repairs will last a bit longer then so be it.
"Maybe they have to look at the worst ones but everywhere is bad and the money is not going to go very far.
"They need to put more money into this but at the end of the day our taxes will go up – we cannot win."
Police investigating the death of Kirton Lindsey cyclist Christian Brown, 40 – airlifted to hospital from North Willingham on February 12 – initially said a pothole could have caused the crash.
Trevor Halstead, who runs Church Street Cycles, in Gainsborough, welcomed better pothole repairs.
"Potholes are a nightmare," he said.
"I'm optimistic that this new way of fixing them could see longer lasting results.
"Hit a pothole on a bike and it's dangerous enough to blow a tyre, bend a wheel or fetch you off.
"As the safety officer for my area cyclists' touring club people do report potholes to me which I pass on to the council.
"The roads are important and they need work whether they are A, B or C roads."
Paul Coathup, assistant director for highways and transportation, said matching the right repair to a specific fault is key.
He said: "It would take £300 million to take all of Lincolnshire's roads up to standard.
"This extra money won't be the answer to all the problems – it won't fix every pothole – but it is welcome and my job is to spend it as wisely as possible."
The overall annual repair budget for the county's 5,500 miles of roads is £50 million and there are currently 10 reactive teams.
Existing cold asphalt temporary fills to make roads safe will continue.
Councillor William Webb, executive member for highways and transportation, said: "We can now do a fix first time which we would always have liked to do if we had the finance."
To report a pothole, call the Highways Customer Service Centre on 01522 782070 or visit www.lincolnshire.gov.uk
9 Comments
by bill2b
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 7:28PM
“Try ringing 01522 782070 or using the online report form at https://lincs.firmstep.com/popup.aspx/RenderForm/?F.Name=Qw7FFFcwE6c"
Oh hang on I am in a ditch because I hit a pothole must get my laptop out to fill in the online report form, 782070 is not a line dedicated to reporting potholes which is what I was on about.
In a lot of places there are signs advertising the pothole numbers all over the place easy to see and easy to use rather than going online and having to download whatever to report a problem.”
by M_C_Donald
Monday, March 04 2013, 1:40PM
“Why not have a phone number dedicated to potholes then the poor drivers can report them as they hit them"
Try ringing 01522 782070 or using the online report form at https://lincs.firmstep.com/popup.aspx/RenderForm/?F.Name=Qw7FFFcwE6c”
by Bolshie
Sunday, March 03 2013, 10:20PM
“Something doesn't add up in this story.
£50M divided by 5500 miles = £9091 per mile that we're spending today maintaining (or not) the county's roads. A pothole typically takes about £50 -£75 to repair (though the costs of traffic management might add to that). The cost of resurfacing the worst roads after pothole repair (seals the surface after pothole repair or 'invasion' by utilities and telecommunication companies) costs typically £37K per mile. Resurfacing (digs up and replaces the road surface, expected life thereafter 20 -30 years - unless a poor 'invasion by a utilities company opens the surface to ingress of water) can cost about £675K per mile depending on the amount of layers that need to be removed and re-layed.
So - assuming the £50M we spend already (I admit I've not checked that in the accounts) continues in the same way this additional £6.4M is going to be used to pay 4 additional teams to provide the following service:
- Potholes repair @ £3.6M = ca 40000 potholes assuming £100 per instance
- Remove and re-lay road surface @ £1M = ca 27 miles of road
- Conduct more permanent repairs on major roads and junctions @ £2M = ca 3 miles of road
Given we already have 9 'teams' spending the £50M they ought to be able to provide the same service as the 4 new teams. Translates as minimum:
-Pothole repair - 312000 instances
-Remove and re-lay surface - 210 miles
-Deep repair on key routes and junctions - 24 miles
There aren't 312000 potholes in the county and we don't pay to resurface that much road so presumably the difference goes in 'other maintenance'. So - why do we need almost 50% more teams to spend about one eighth of the existing budget when it looks like the amount of work we can buy 'in year' now would probably suffice for a year's maintenance if the contract performance were properly supervised.
This looks to me like they've been given a grant and have simply asked the contractor what he can give them for it. Not nearly good enough. I'll be keeping a close eye on this one and intend to use the FOI act to establish axactly how much work is odne on the roads and how much is paid for it.”
by bill2b
Sunday, March 03 2013, 6:13PM
“Why not have a phone number dedicated to potholes then the poor drivers can report them as they hit them, then a "Crack team" are sent out to fill said hole. easy really works well in a lot of places.”
by Whiley45
Sunday, March 03 2013, 9:02AM
“"Four new crack teams" What we really need is pothole teams!”
by rascall1
Sunday, March 03 2013, 8:03AM
“it beggers beliefe, they shout short of money and then they create a pay salary for 4, when people could be asked to report them, and in order to create a sense of community and pride ask they photo them, and if safe to do so measure them give as much info as possible, get other depts to report them on their way into work, police, ambulance and who ever, they travel them every day, and before some idiot says we have not got time, make time, and if the emergency services are on blue light they could be forgiven of course, its crazy, up the pc's people, about time we took pride in our land and got on with doing more to help ourselves,”
by GusterLinc
Saturday, March 02 2013, 12:06PM
“Bluetac - it's worse than that - it's not just £300,000, it's £300,000,000 that's needed!”
by bluetac
Saturday, March 02 2013, 8:51AM
“i agree rick, i live on a bus route littered with pot holes, for the past 3 years, they have been chucking abit of loose tarmac in the holes, and getting out that vibrating plate to compact it, a week later, theres a hole again, even the workmen have agreed it needs more, but there instructed to fill the hole, not repair it.
If it will take 300.000 this year to repair all the roads, and lets face it, they wont deal with it this year either, next year its going to cost 500.000, whats that saying? ive paied my car tax, now go fix some ......... potholes?”
by rick29
Saturday, March 02 2013, 8:19AM
“if they kept on top of the problem to begin with instead of doing half a job when fixing normal potholes correctly they wouldnt be so bad now, the half a job way of fixing potholes is dumping ina bit of tar flattening and leaving, instead of doing it the proper way which is cut a neat shape out aroudn the pothole, put an appropiate adhesive sealer in the hole put in the tarmac flatten it off then seal the edges so water cant get in the crack to wash the new tar out”