£95m to fix potholes across region
Potholes on Beech Crescent, Townville in October last year
The cost of repairing crumbling roads across the Five Towns has been revealed.
Figures released by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) put the cost of repairing all the district’s potholes at £95,378,947, which is the average cost for each council in Yorkshire and Humberside.
The Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (Alarm) survey, also showed it would take an average of 11 years to clear the backlog.
AIA chairman Alan Mackenzie said: “Constantly having to patch up crumbling roads, rather than using highway engineers’ skills properly, to ensure good road condition in a planned and cost effective way, is nonsensical and costly.”
Wakefield Council bosses put the actual cost of clearing the pothole backlog at £48m over 10 years.
Last July the council said it had £4.25m to spend on resurfacing 75 miles of road, with a further £3m investment planned for the next three years.
But Graham West, highways network, service manager, said bad weather had hindered progress on the 108 roads the council said it would repair by the end of March.
He said: “We have completed two-thirds of our planned programme for 2012/13. Last year saw one of the wettest summers on record and unfortunately some timescales have slipped as the work can only be carried out in suitable weather conditions.
“We fully understand residents’ frustrations but are working as quickly as we can and can reassure them that all the works identified in the programme will still be completed.”
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Monday 20 May 2013
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