One in five roads will be undriveable within the next 15 years
05 June 2023
A new document by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey, reports that one in five roads (37,000 miles) have so much road surface damage that they will be undriveable within five years.
It has been estimated that about £14 billion is needed to repair all road surface damage England and Wales. This means that our roads have suffered an additional £2 billion in damage since last year’s estimate.
There is now concern within the motoring industry that the government’s pledged £700 million investment (including a £200 million boost announced in the Spring Budget) into road repairs during 2023/24 will not be enough to clear a significant amount of damage.
The government estimated that the fund will see more than four million potholes repaired.
Local roads are categorised within the ALARM report as follows:
- Good = expected to continue to be driveable for more than 15 years.
- Adequate = expected to continue to be driveable between 5 and 15 years.
- Poor = expected to continue to be driveable for less than 5 years.
The Department for Transport itself says that 15 per cent of unclassified roads in England are rated as ‘red’ meaning significantly damaged.
The ALARM report estimates that 100,000 miles of road will need rebuilding during the next 15 years. Yet, interestingly, AIA chair Rich Green says that ‘resurfacing now takes place, on average, less than once every 100 years’.
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