Residents are regularly writing to me asking about the state of the roads in the city and, in particular, when the potholes and the various roads will be the subject of Highway Maintenance Programmes. Set out below are various updates and responses from the Council.
The responses are:
- A general update on how Highways prioritise pothole repairs.
- An update on the Highways Maintenance backlog in the city.
- Short-term plans for Highways Maintenance Work
- Information on the LCC Highways Dressing Programme for 2024
Pothole Priorities
The Leeds City Council policy for repairing potholes is as follows:
Each pothole that is identified or reported is placed into one of three categories.
Category 1. These are the highest priority repairs and should be attended to by the
end of the next working day.
Category 2. These are classed as urgent and should be attended to within 7 days.
Category 3. These are classed as non-urgent and should be attended to within 28
days.
This policy follows guidelines which are set out in the National Code of Practice, “Well- Maintained Highways – The Code of Practice for Highways Maintenance Management” The Code of Practice was commissioned by the Department of Transport and came into effect in October 2018. It provides guidance for authorities when developing their approach to highway infrastructure in accordance with local needs, priorities and affordability
Highway Maintenance Backlog
You may be aware from national and our own local media coverage, there is a considerable backlog in Highways Maintenance work nationally and across the city; the latter is the case, despite the Council contributing circa 190m worth of additional funding, to that received from Government, since 2004. The backlog across the City is estimated at 288m. Potholes can occur at any time. However, the incidence of potholes increases during the winter months when water makes its way into cracks in the road, freezes and expands, causing surfaces to deteriorate further.
This informs the production of the Annual Highways Maintenance Programmes and a look forward draft programme for several years ahead. Local ward members are consulted on the draft Highways Maintenance Programmes each year, in Summer time, with their being some (albeit limited) flexibility to adjust the programme amongst roads in a similar (poor) condition and needing similar treatment In the interim, colleagues will continue to attend site to fill in any potholes reported or observed through their inspections.
Temporary repairs are undertaken in emergency circumstances to reduce the risk to public safety until a more permanent repair can be undertaken.
Patching is only undertaken to a proportion of a street or road, usually to a lower depth and not the full extent and as a consequence patching is cheaper in such instances. However
there comes a point at which, if the extent of patching undertaken is exceeded, typically more than 35% it would make surfacing a more viable option.
Patching is generally undertaken when most of the road is in a sound condition, but the street has isolated areas of deformation, potholes and crazing. In this case patching will be applied at isolated locations and the street selected would then receive a follow-up preventative treatment such as surface dressing or micro asphalt. These treatments seal the surface, prevent the ingress of water and detritus, and prolong its life.
Engineers are aware of the point where patching becomes un-economical and use whole life costing as investment appraisal and management tool. This assesses the total cost of an asset over potential life considering maintenance and repair. Patching remains a cost effective and essential choice to highway engineers.
Plans For Road Maintenance In the Next Few Months
In the short term, patching will continue, but the plans for the next few months are set out in the attached document “Highways Infrastructure Maintenance Programmes (Roads) 24/25” called the Report (1) pdf.
Leeds Highways Surface Dressing Programme 2024
Dear councillor
Please find attached our 2024/25 programme for carriageway surface dressing works . The programme is weather-dependent so can be delayed , provisionally planned to start late April going through to the end of June.
Sites may be in your ward or close enough to attract interest / queries . Surface dressing isn’t one of the public’s favoured surfacing methods , it tends to attract more interest and comments than other surfacing methods due to the nature of the treatment, put simply tar & chips, however its use is an essential part of our overall maintenance plan. All properties directly affected by our works will have a contractor info leaflet hand delivered, explaining the process and why we are carrying out this essential work.
Our contractor provides a dedicated customer care team to deal with most problems & complaints that arise during the dressing season , negative comments will hopefully be kept to a minimum.
The reason for sending the 2 reports at this stage is not to highlight the streets not included as being the subject of any work, but those that will, which as you will see from the Dressing Programme, lead to closures over the coming weeks and no matter which part of the city you are trying to negotiate may have some temporary closures and if you have prior knowledge you may be able to find alternative routes to ensure any traffic delays are minimised.
Some residents will already have received some of this information in full or in part for which I apologise, but I felt on balance this duplication was preferable to not knowing when certain roads will be closed, the areas of the city affected and the rationale used to prioritise the work.
