Utility companies dug 2.5 million holes in English and Welsh roads in 2007, an increase of 25% on the year before. The increase was revealed in the 13th annual local authority road maintenance (ALARM) survey, published by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA). The figure equates to an average 16,500 trenches dug in the roads of every local authority in England and Wales, all of which raise concerns about the need for early road resurfacing and pressure on highway maintenance budgets.
The
2008 ALARM survey also records nearly a million potholes, a shortfall in maintenance budgets of nearly £1 billion and a backlog of work required that would take 11 years to complete, even given a full budget. Jim Crick, chairman of the AIA, says: "Despite some increase in central government funding over recent years, it seems that highway maintenance is still suffering from historically being treated as the Cinderella service."
Reed Business Information Limited.©2008
