£2.7m highways surfacing project completed
A £2.7m scheme to improve East Riding roads and help protect them against potholes has been completed for 2019.
As part of its annual surface dressing programme, East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s highways maintenance team carried out work at 190 sites across the area during the spring and summer months.
During the four-month scheme around 16,000 tonnes of stone chippings have been laid on 750,000 square metres of road. That is the equivalent to 80 miles of continuous road – almost twice as long as the route from Bridlington to Goole.
The highways team is preparing for next year’s programme by carrying out patching work on damaged sections of road which are due for surface dressing next year.
Surface dressing is carried out every year by the council between April and the end of August, as a quick and economical way of repairing and maintaining the surface to prolong the life of the road.
The work involves spraying hot, sticky bitumen on to the road, spreading chippings on top, and then using a roller to press them into the road. The process actively reduces the risk of potholes forming as it seals the road and stops water from entering and damaging the surface. It also improves skid resistance for vehicles.
So far this year, from 1 January to 31 July, the highways maintenance team has also carried out work to repair more than 17,000 potholes and highway defects across the East Riding’s 2,200 miles of road network.
Councillor Mike Stathers, portfolio holder for enhancing communities at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said: “Our annual surface dressing programme is a huge operation and plays a vital part in protecting and improving our roads for the benefit of motorists.
“We can’t prevent every pothole, but thanks to the hard work and planning of our highways maintenance team, more roads are being protected against potholes every year.”
This year’s surface dressing programme has been funded through the council’s planned highways maintenance allocation, as well as contributions from the Department for Transport’s Pothole Action Fund and the Government’s Local Growth Fund secured by York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership, following a successful bid by the council.
The council stressed that loose chippings left behind after a section of road is surface dressed do not go to waste. Mechanical road sweepers are sent out along each road to collect up all the loose chippings, which are all collected together and put into storage.
Every two years the council hires a giant industrial washing and grading machine to clean all the loose chippings so they can be recycled and reused on the roads the following year. The process recycles more than 7,000 tonnes of chippings and saves around £60,000 of council tax payers’ money.
