ALARM 2019 reveals investment in UK local roads still falling short

UK |

Despite an almost 20% increase in local authority highway maintenance budgets in England and Wales, there is still a £657 million annual carriageway shortfall and the one-off cost to get roads back into a reasonable, steady state has risen to £9.79 billion, according to the 24th ALARM (Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance) report.

Published by Eurobitume UK and its Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) partner, the Mineral Products Association, this widely-respected annual survey of local authorities in England and Wales revealed the average time before a local authority-managed road is resurfaced is 67 years. However, if local authorities had enough funds to meet their own targets across all road types, there would be more than 20,000 miles of improved local roads.

Other key findings include the fact that a pothole was filled on average every 17 seconds, and the total cost of dealing with compensation claims arising from poor condition roads last year was £26.7 million – which includes £6.9 million paid out in compensation.

The full 2019 ALARM report can be downloaded from here.

 

 

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