Organisation: Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA)
Date of Publication: March 2023
Uploaded to Knowledge Centre: 3 May 2023
The one-time cost to fix local roads in England and Wales has reached £14 billion for the first time – the equivalent of £68,000 for every mile.
The annual ALARM survey of highways departments in all local authorities in England and Wales builds a picture of the general condition of local roads.
The 2023 survey saw a record 75% of local authorities respond, and suggests that £14.02 billion is now needed to fix the backlog of carriageway repairs. According to the AIA, this is the amount required as a one-off investment to bring the network up to a condition that would allow it to be managed cost effectively going forward.
The report finds that while average highway maintenance budgets have increased by 4.5% to £25.8 million per authority, this does not keep pace with rising inflation and represents a cut in real terms.
Additionally, not all local authority highway teams saw an increase in funding: 53% of authorities actually reported a cut or freeze in their highway maintenance budget, even before inflation is taken into account.
Meanwhile, the average percentage of highway maintenance budget allocated to the carriageway itself dropped slightly to 50%, the lowest it has been for a decade. The report says this reflects the need to balance the maintenance of other parts of the highway asset, such as structures, signage, street lighting and drainage.
In terms of road condition, the report finds there has been a drop in the number of roads classed as green (in a good state of repair) and a corresponding increase in those classed as AMBER (showing some deterioration).
Roads classed as RED (poor overall condition) have remained stable with one in every nine miles (11%) of the local road network likely to require maintenance in the next 12 months. This equates to around 22,600 miles.
In total, 1.4 million potholes were filled – down from 1.7 million last year – but still equivalent to one every 22 seconds. Overall, £93.7 million was spent filling potholes in 2022/23 and the total spent over the last 10 years is more than £1 billion.
Click the following link to view the report:
https://www.asphaltuk.org/wp-content/uploads/ALARM-survey-2023-FINAL-with-links.pdf