Transport and Roads

In the budget of 23^rd March 2011 The Government announced additional funding of £100 million for local authorities to repair potholes and other road damage caused by the prolonged cold weather experienced during the winter of 2010/11. This is in addition to the £100 million announced in February 2011.

Bradford Council received £1,118,319 from the Department for Transport (DfT) towards repairing roads whose condition had deteriorated significantly as a result of the severe weather. The DfT insisted that local authorities use this additional funding to complement the highway maintenance budget, this brief statement describes how Bradford Council has allocated and is spending this investment.

To ensure that the money was spent in those areas where the most significant deterioration had occurred, Bradford Council Highways consulted a number of sources including; Highway Safety Inspectors, other Highways staff, service requests made by members of the public, Councillors and survey data to name a few.

In order to make the most efficient use of the money it has been targeted in 3 ways: -

1. Patching - Immediately following the thaw, a great deal of emphasis was placed on localised pothole repairs. This had the effect of resolving the immediate problem, but generally does little to restore the overall integrity of the road. Therefore a programme of targeted minor and major patching work is ongoing that focuses on those streets / locations that are regularly causing problems, i.e. numerous potholing defects are regularly occurring in or around the same location. The aim is to spend £100,000 in each of the 5 districts (Bradford South, Bradford West, Bradford East, Shipley and Keighley) on this pro-active approach.
2. District based priorities – Differing types of work are being undertaken that address the issues in the various districts by matching the appropriate treatment to the local needs and requirements by carrying out joint repairs, road resurfacing and micro asphalt. These treatments also restrict surface water ingress, a major contributory factor in freeze / thaw road damage.
3. Major Highway Maintenance – Will focus road resurfacing works on the more major type sites that have deteriorated significantly due to the severe winter weather. Work includes micro asphalt and resurfacing / reconstruction.

All of the work being carried out is in addition to the Council’s capital road resurfacing preventative maintenance programme that this financial year has an allocated budget of £3,062,000 and the revenue general road and footway maintenance budget of £3,125,700.

The tables below detail the locations specifically identified for treatment in categories 2 and 3 above:

Road Resurfacing and Reconstruction

Major Maintenance

Bradford South

Shipley

Bradford East

Keighley

Carriageway Micro asphalt

Major Maintenance

Bradford West

Bradford East

Footway Slurry Seal

Bradford West

Carriageway Joint Treatment

Bradford East

Keighley