Cakes, drinks and bunting are common features of birthday parties 鈥� usually for those held for humans.
But local papers around the country report an outbreak of ironic birthday 鈥榗elebrations鈥� for potholes with which local residents have lost patience after more than a year.
The condition of local roads is 鈥渁s bad as it鈥檚 ever been鈥�, says Rick Green, chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance whose annual local authority road maintenance (ALARM) survey for 2024 painted a dismal picture of pothole prevalence as local authority budgets shrink.
There is plenty of highway maintenance work that contractors could do, but council highways department face the perennial problem that when budgets are set, potholes can never compete with the demands of social care, which absorbs a huge slug of council spending.
Faced with that, it is always tempting for finance directors to cut highways budgets, reasoning that roads can be repaired at some future point but adults and children in need cannot wait.
This also tends to mean that when money is spent on roads it is reactive: it goes on patching up the worst potholes rather than on planned long-term maintenance to avoid potholes appearing in the first place, even though this would be more cost-effective in the long run.
Green says reactive spending 鈥渋nevitably makes it harder for [councils and contractors] to plan ahead; guaranteed longer-term funding helps increase efficiency and provide a more resilient road network鈥�.
This article was first published in the May 2024 issue of 海角社区app Magazine. Sign up online.
Even where council budgets have increased in cash terms, inflation has meant less can be done per pound spent.
A few highlights from the Alarm survey are enough to give cause for concern. It found that local authorities in England and Wales effectively experienced a real terms cut due to inflation, despite average highway maintenance budget increases of 2.3% to 拢26.4m.
It also found that 45% of authorities reported a cut or freeze in their highway maintenance budget, even before inflation.
The additional amount local authorities across England and Wales would have needed to maintain their network according to their own targets was 拢1.22bn, which meant the average shortfall in the 2023-24 carriageway budget was 拢7.2m per authority.
If authorities were in a position to tackle the highways backlog 鈥� and they aren鈥檛 鈥� the survey estimated they would need 拢16.3bn to bring the network up to a condition that would allow it to be managed cost-effectively.
Some 11% of local roads were classified as being in poor overall condition and likely to require maintenance in the next 12 months. That is equivalent to around 22,300 miles of road.
There was actually an increase in the number of potholes filled last year, up from 1.4m to 2.0m, although well below the 2.3m filled in 2015. But overall decline continued, with only 47% of local road miles classed as in 鈥榞ood鈥� structural condition, down from 51% last year. This leaves some 107,000 miles with less than 15 years鈥� structural life remaining, defined as when surface maintenance alone is insufficient.
Filling potholes through a process of reactive maintenance 鈥� rather than as part of planned preventative maintenance 鈥� is also an expensive business.
The Alarm survey found that, in England, it cost 拢51.40 to fix a pothole through planned maintenance but 拢79.53 as a one-off reactive repair. The figures for Wales were 拢51.05 and 拢81.68 respectively and for London 拢70.95 and 拢121.52.
Green says: 鈥淭he asphalt industry, like all others, is experiencing increased costs throughout the supply chain due to inflation and resource costs. AIA members have worked hard to remain competitive against those pressures.
鈥淲e are working to reduce our energy use for environmental reasons, for example using warm mix asphalts where practicable, and this can potentially reduce costs.鈥�
According to a spokesperson for the Construction Products Association (CPA), 鈥淚nflation has undoubtedly eaten into local authority budgets for highways maintenance.
鈥淐onstruction materials inflation began falling from June last year, but that will fail to undo two previous years of rapidly increasing prices 鈥� due to the Ukraine conflict and global price rises 鈥� as well as increased domestic demand during and immediately after the pandemic.
鈥淎t the start of this year, materials prices were still 38.9% higher than at the end of 2019, which presents a seemingly impossible challenge to absorb into budgets.
This article was first published in the May 2024 issue of 海角社区app Magazine. Sign up online.
鈥淥n top of this, there will have been increases in labour and plant costs and potentially even capacity constraints as councils increased pothole repairs straining project costs further.鈥�
The CPA does not publish data for asphalt, given the small number of suppliers, but said bituminous mixture prices had risen by 38% between 2019 and 2023, and cement by 34.4%.
One bright spot is that the government has promised to reallocate 拢83bn to highway repairs saved by lopping off the northern sections of HS2. Although rather confusingly called Network North this money will in fact be spent across England, but can its use be properly planned?
Matthew Lugg, a former president of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation and now director of local transport at consultancy WSP, says: 鈥淭he additional maintenance funding represents a 75% increase on existing funding.
鈥淭he concern is that the overall profile of that spending is not yet known other than it will be fully implemented from 2025-26 onwards over the next 10 years.
鈥淲ithout further clarification, highway authorities will have difficulty effectively planning how to deliver this large uplift in spending as will the supply chain鈥檚 ability to effectively mobilise the resources necessary to meet this increased demand in workload.鈥�
Another problem he identifies is that councils short of revenue 鈥� their day-to-day money 鈥� have shifted highway repairs over to the capital budgets.
The precise relationship between these lies deep in local government financial management but the effect is that 鈥渙verall revenue pressures facing local government have meant in many cases revenue for reactive road repairs are being capitalised so where authorities have received more capital funding much of this has resulted in capitalised revenue and meant there has been no overall increase in maintenance monies鈥�, Lugg says.
According to Rick Green: 鈥淭here is consensus among respondents to our Alarm survey that guaranteed, longer-term funding helps to increase efficiency and provide a more resilient road network.
鈥淎lmost all responses (96%) indicate that at least five years should be considered as the optimal term with some suggesting up to 25 years, as used for PFI funding models, could be considered 鈥榠deal鈥�.
鈥淪urety of funding helps authorities plan with more confidence and drive greater cost and environmental efficiencies through the promotion of proactive asset management techniques,鈥� continues Green.
鈥淟ong-term investment in local roads maintenance will then help give the asphalt supply chain confidence to further invest in plant upgrades, materials innovation and technical advancements to support the development and delivery of resilient, lower carbon roads.鈥�
This article was first published in the May 2024 issue of 海角社区app Magazine. Sign up online.
How bad could this get? Green says: 鈥淭he condition of our local roads is as bad as it鈥檚 ever been and unfortunately, while the government鈥檚 reallocated HS2 funding is a positive step, it is unlikely to be enough to reverse the ongoing decline in conditions.鈥�
He says the government has admitted that its 拢8.3bn injection is only enough to resurface 5,000 miles of local roads over 11 years.
鈥淭his sounds like a lot, but it is just 2.7% of the network in England and London, where the funding is being made available, while our survey highlights that there are already 31,000 miles of local roads reported to have less than five years鈥� life remaining.鈥�
Green recognises pressures on public spending but notes: 鈥淭he longer we continue to kick the can down the road, the more conditions will decline, leading to a rising bill to fix the problem.鈥�
About a decade ago a head of steam appeared to be building behind the concept of asset management 鈥� viewing the highways network as something whose maintenance needed to be planned long-term much as a building鈥檚 might be.
Lugg helped to promote this approach in work that he did for the Department for Transport. He says now: 鈥淟ocal authorities have made significant progress in adopting asset management since the Highway Maintenance Efficiency Programme initiative and the following incentivised funding from 2015-21.
鈥淭his enabled highway engineers to convince elected members that it would be wise to invest in planned maintenance rather than reactive repairs. But budget pressures, construction inflation and climate change impacts have meant that reactive repairs have had to take priority to ensure the safety of highway users and to prevent the cost of insurance claims.鈥�
Lugg hopes that policy will emerge to 鈥渆ncourage them to resume an emphasis on planned maintenance and also to promote innovation, efficiency, carbon reduction, sustainability and to support biodiversity鈥�.
Sustainability and carbon reduction are not just 鈥榥ice-to-haves鈥�. Lugg says that although last winter was not particularly cold 鈥漣t was the wettest on record which meant many roads were flooded or continually wet and this has not only caused surface damage but the high water table saturates the road foundations and causes more extensive structural damage鈥�.
The state of highways also concerns their users. Edmund King, president of motoring organisation the AA, says: 鈥淥ur breakdown data shows that 2023 was the worst year for potholes for five years.
鈥淎rguably the road network is a local council鈥檚 biggest asset, but not enough planned investment and repairs are being made to make streets safer and smoother for drivers and those on two wheels. Resurfacing occurs on average once every 80 years 鈥� making it a once in a lifetime event.鈥�
Cycling UK鈥檚 head of campaigns Duncan Dollimore says: 鈥淭he estimated 拢16.3bn needed to fix local roads is obviously a huge amount of money. However, it鈥檚 important to remember that the government initially planned to spend 拢27.4bn on the strategic road network between 2020 and 2025. It鈥檚 time the government heard the alarm bells and prioritised the maintenance of local roads.鈥�
There is now even a Pothole Partnership comprising the AA, the National Motorcyclists Council, British Cycling, IAM RoadSmart, the British Motorcyclists Federation and plant manufacturer 海角社区app, whose general manager Ben Rawding (with a pothole-filling machine to sell) says: 鈥淭ackling the national backlog of potholes properly will involve investment in innovation and new technologies to ensure permanent fixes, not temporary repairs.鈥�
Green agrees: 鈥淚f we want local road conditions to improve for the benefit of all users, we need to reach the point where maintenance can be planned and proactively carried out in the most timely and efficient way. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 so important that recent commitments to long term funding are honoured and that the funds pledged don鈥檛 continue to end up being eaten away.鈥�
This article was first published in the May 2024 issue of 海角社区app Magazine. Sign up online.
Otherwise, more birthday parties may be held as highways deteriorate. The potholes might enjoy this, but residents and road users will not.
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
