Highway Maintenance Funding - Network North: Made possible by reallocated HS2 funding.
Road maintenance is funded from grants allocated by central government to Local Highway Authorities. In October 2023 the government announced an additional £8.3 billion of additional highways maintenance funding over the period 2023 to 2024, and the next 10 years, for local road resurfacing and wider maintenance activity on the local highway network in England. This funding has been made available following the cancellation of the proposed northern sections of HS2 Phase 2.
Warwickshire County Council (WCC) have been awarded the additional funding, to be spent over the 11 year period up till 2033/2034, for local highways maintenance particularly for the resurfacing of carriageways, cycleways and footways to prevent potholes and other road defects from occurring, as well as tackling other asset management priorities, such as keeping local bridges and other highway structures open and safe.
During 2023/2024, WCC received an additional £2,056,000 to be spent in the following areas:
| Area/Roads where work is planned | Type of work being undertaken | Surface area resurfaced (if applicable) | Benefits from it (e.g improved journey times etc) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Hack Lane, Long Compton |
Resurfacing |
4878 m2 |
- Reduced reactive maintenance costs - Improve road surface - Reduce number of insurance claims |
|
Drum Lane, Haseley |
Resurfacing |
2849m2 |
- Reconstructed passing bays to aid journeys and local traffic - Improved the road width in some sections to ease travel
|
|
Gorsey Lane, Coleshill |
Resurfacing |
4494 m2 |
- Reduced reactive maintenance costs - Improve road surface for users - Reduce number of insurance claims |
|
Nuneaton Road, Church End |
Resurfacing |
1410 m2 |
- Reduced reactive maintenance costs - Improve road surface - Reduce number of insurance claims |
|
Drayton Close, Hartshill |
Resurfacing |
450 m2 |
- Reduced maintenance costs - Better road surface for residents
|
|
Countywide |
Find & fix patching works |
|
- Reduced reactive maintenance costs - Improved driver experience - Reduce number of insurance claims - Catches defects in the early stages before they require more invasive intervention - Reduced disruption to the network due to early intervention |
|
C208 Mayswood Road, Henley |
Resurfacing |
10,0062 m2 |
- Improves road surface - Reduces reactive maintenance costs |
The same level of funding will be received in 2024/2025.
| Area/Roads where work is planned | Type of work being undertaken | Surface area resurfaced (if applicable) | Benefits from it (e.g improved journey times etc) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
A444 Nuneaton (multiple sections) |
Resurfacing |
17,498 m2 |
- Reduced reactive maintenance costs - Improve road surface around George Elliot hospital - Reduce number of insurance claims - Increase access for businesses to new industrial areas and for residents to new housing areas - Reduced journey times - Reduced disruption to the public due to reduction of reactive activities |
|
Countywide |
Find & fix patching gangs |
|
- Reduced reactive maintenance costs - Improved driver experience - Reduce number of insurance claims - Catches defects in the early stages before they require more invasive intervention -Reduced disruption to the network due to catching defects early |
|
Fillongley |
Bridges works: Culvert Lining |
|
-Improve the condition of the twin culverts and reduce the possibility of flood risk if a section of the culvert were to fail. |
|
Birdingbury River Bridge |
Bridges works: Replacement of river training wall |
|
-Replace a failed river training wall and reduce the risk to damage of the structure by scour |
|
M6 Jct 3 |
Contribution to streetlighting scheme |
|
- Contribution to larger streetlighting scheme for M6 Jct 3 |
We use industry leading strategic asset management software to identify sites for inclusion in our additional resurfacing programme, made possible by the reallocated HS2 funding.
The condition of Warwickshire's road network has been established through a regime of both visual and machine-based surveys undertaken across the whole of the carriageway network over a rolling two-year cycle.
We have examined the survey data using the specialist asset management software which has helped us to decide where we should be channelling the additional resources to provide the greatest benefit.
We have taken into account some other factors, in addition to road condition, in our decision making such as; road usage levels, it’s presence on the strategic and resilient road network and proximity to local amenities like schools, colleges and hospitals, and this has helped us to create our prioritised list of maintenance schemes where the greatest benefit can be achieved.
Find & Fix
Warwickshire have a number of find & fix gangs, these gangs are specifically tasked to drive our “C” and “D” road network to identify and repair potholes and other surface defects that wouldn’t ordinarily meet our intervention levels. By reducing the intervention levels for the find and fix gangs we are able to undertake a localised permeant repairs of defects before they grow and require more invasive, disruptive and expensive works. Since November 2023 we have repaired over 2600 defects. The location and number of defects repaired is fed into our asset management system and helps to influence the roads that we look to surface dress in the following years.
Coordination
We know that road works cause disruption to people that live and work in Warwickshire as well as businesses. This is why we undertake regular coordination meetings with neighbouring authorities, utility companies and other stakeholders with an aim to minimise disruption as much as possible. Where applicable all works are protected under section 58 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991.