Four weeks 800 highway repairs

Cheshire West and Chester Council announced an additional £278,000 funding for road maintenance at the beginning of June. Work starts today (Monday 26th June) to repair 800 potholes identified across the borough.

Councillor Karen Shore, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Transport said: “This funding will allow four additional teams to repair defects across our borough all of which will contribute to making our borough a better place for our residents and visitors.

“The Council manages over 2,280 kilometres of carriageway and like authorities across the country we are facing a large challenge with an ageing network and limited budget. Our teams repaired over 7,000 potholes last year and we have fewer outstanding repairs than many other comparable areas. Over the next four weeks there will be new additional crews working across the borough starting in Northwich today and focusing on demand in areas of Northwich, Winsford, Ellesmere Port and Chester plus surrounding rural locations.”

Schedule:

Week beginning 26 June – Northwich

Week beginning 3 July – Northwich and Winsford

Week beginning 10 July – Ellesmere Port, Frodsham, Neston

Week beginning 17 July – Chester to Malpas

Potholes are caused when water seeps through cracks in the road caused by passing vehicles.  During periods of extreme cold, the water freezes and expands.  The ice thaws and milder weather dries up all the water and creates a hole under the surface of the road.  This gets larger every time water seeps into the hole, freezes and expands.

With the base weakened, the weight of traffic causes the road surface to collapse into the hole that was formed from water freezing, expanding and thawing under the surface.  A pothole is formed once the road surface has collapsed; wear from traffic then makes the hole bigger.

For further details: 

Highways improvement programme | Cheshire West and Chester Council