What has Warrington done

As a result of the two severe winters and in particular following the most recent coldest winter in 30 years that saw record low temperatures, Warrington’s roads have deteriorated in a number of different ways.

In some locations the surface of roads was stripped away over considerable areas in places and particularly in the more exposed parts of the borough. Additionally like many other authorities the roads deteriorated rapidly in localised areas resulting in more severe potholes in an increasing number. In Warrington this is similar to the national picture in that we have had to deal with an average 30% increase in localised repairs being identified as a result of the two consecutive winters.

Government Support and work undertaken following the 2009 winter

The Department for Transport (DfT) awarded Warrington support grant of £259,000 following the 2009 winter.  The DfT expressed an eagerness for authorities to use the 2009/10 additional funding of £259,000 in a way that would maximise the benefits to the road user over the longer term. Since some of Warrington’s roads deteriorated in such a way as to warrant resurfacing approximately £90,000 of that allocation was used to resurface and replace surfaces that had severely deteriorated following the 2009 winter thus maximising the longer term use of the highway. Locations that have been resurfaced include sections of Phipps Lane Broad Lane, Burtonwood, sections of Cimmanon Lane, Fearnhead, sections of Delph Lane, Houghton Green, sections of Hilcliffe Road, Walton and sections of Highfield Lane, Winwick. Locations were also identified and included in an expanded surface treatment programme to protect and prolong the life of roads. These additional treatment works were identified in Great Sankey costing of the order of £49,000.

The remainder of the £259,000 allocation (amounting to £120,000) was used to assist with the increase in localised repairs to roads that were identified as part of the regular inspections and reported problems. The authority overall spent an additional £350,000 on localised pothole repairs and additional patching in 2009/10 financial year due to the 2009 winter predominantly in the January – April period following the winter. The annual allocated budget for pothole repairs in 2009/10 was £430,000.

Warrington again saw a peak number of reported problems and repairs needing attention in the January – April 2011 period immediately following the 2010 winter with an additional overall £400,000 being spent on pothole repairs in the 2010/11 financial year. The annual budget allocated to pothole repairs in 2010/11 was £480,000.

Government Support and work undertaken following the recent 2010 winter

The most recent winter of 2010/11 has unfortunately compounded the road condition problems. Warrington welcomed the support from Government to assist with the problems and have allocated the full £550,000 that was awarded to Warrington to its road maintenance budget for 2011/12.

In the same way as in 2010 following the previous cold winter the additional £550,000 of funding awarded in April 2011 has been ring fenced for doing additional repairs and improvements to improve the overall condition and sustainability of the roads. Warrington’s base annual budget for dealing with potholes was also increased to £539,000 for 2011/12 to assist with the increasing problem and to support the problem of increasing tarmac costs that are far in excess of inflation levels and are also contributing to budget pressures in this area of work.

 During the last six months (April – September) an increase in road repairs, patching and localised re-surfacing has been undertaken across the borough.

Localised reactive road repairs

Localised road repairs and patching has been identified directly by highways inspectors who walk the streets on a daily basis and also follow up on reports from the public were problems have arisen. Additional repairs that have resulted from reported problems and highway inspections during the last six months has amounted to an additional 25% road repairs being undertaken, totalling over 520 additional repairs using 2,550 sqm of tarmac and spending some £155,000 on additional reactive maintenance work.  A further £50,000 of additional localised repair works is identified to be undertaken across the Borough in the coming three months before the onset of winter.

Some roads are likely to suffer as a consequence of the coming winter even if this winter is maybe milder than the previous two years. Unfortunately the damage caused by the last two winters has accelerated the deterioration hence even a milder winter is still likely to pose problems in the January – March 2012 period.

Surface dressing pre-patching work

More extensive patching of roads was also identified and undertaken during the last six months to compliment and enhance the borough’s surface dressing programme. Following the 2010 winter roads in some areas presented the authority with more extensive surface deterioration problems that would benefit from patching and surface treatment to protect the roads from further inclement weather.

Warrington’s surface dressing pre-patching programme has therefore doubled in programme in 2011 and benefited from £220,000 of the DfT grant. Extra patching has been undertaken in Penketh, Poulton with Fearnhead, Appleton and Bewsey and Whitecross areas in readiness for additional surface treatment planned for April 2012.

Look of the Borough

Warrington also operates a Look of the Borough team that targets road repairs on a neighbourhood approach. The team is an additional resource that undertakes additional road repairs on a cyclic basis. The team has been working in the south neighbourhood area following the 2010/11 winter. To maximise and compliment this resource additional road repair work has been identified in the south area and undertaken by the Look of the Borough team. An additional 610 sqm of additional repairs has been identified in the south over and above that expected for this area as a result of the winter. This additional work amounts to £45,000 used from the DfT award by this team.

Extended resurfacing of roads

Some roads have required sections to be resurfaced or have received an extension to the planned resurfacing following the winter. Such roads include Clay Lane, Winwick, Hillock Lane.

Woolston and Green Lane, Woolston were extra resurfacing has been undertaken as a result of the winter. This additional resurfacing work has cost £80,000 and therefore has been supported with DfT grant awarded over and above the £2million allocated for road resurfacing this financial year.

Given the scale of the problem nationally there is still likely to be further repairs and improvement needed to Warrington’s roads even following this injection of money.

DFT Additional maintenance funding summary 2011.pdf