Wiltshire wages war on potholes (From This Is Wiltshire)

Wiltshire wages war on potholes

7:00am Saturday 20th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

Wiltshire Council is investing £1 million in filling potholes on roads hit by severe winter weather.

The money will enable the council to invest in a third special velocity repairer machine which seals sections of road where potholes have already been filled.

County roads engineer Graeme Hay said the money will enable him and his colleagues to continue the work that has been going on since snow and ice thawed after the January freeze-up.

Mr Hay said: “We have been very busy since then and the new money enables us to continue our work right through the summer.

“We have been filling lots of holes but damage will keep appearing as this is the way that frost works.

“In addition, we have now started going back and sealing areas where there have been lots of holes with the velocity repairers, which spray larger areas and seal them so that they won’t be so easily damaged by frost next winter.

“We are also using £500,000 of the funding on attending to damage to verges. On narrow roads vehicles tend to drive over the verges and this makes the damage worse.

“The verges will be dug out, repairs made to the surface, and the verges replaced. We are tackling the problem from all directions and each situation is different and needs to be approached in a different way.”

Council leader Jane Scott said: “It has been really difficult to find this extra money but we believe roads are a priority, so I’m pleased that we have been able to release this funding.

“The weather over the last two winters has been unusually bad and has caused severe damage to our roads.”

Wiltshire Council road maintenance crews have been filling 400 to 500 potholes a day throughout the county, though they have had to go back to some after frost damage caused them to open up again.

Between 60 to 68 road workers, many of whom had been operating gritting lorries during the icy weather, have been working their way around the county in teams of two or three.

Mr Hay said this manual work, as well as using spray machines to seal larger areas, will continue until September.