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Highways maintenance typically refers to the upkeep and repair of public roads, pavements and other related infrastructure. This can include tasks such as filling potholes, resurfacing roads, repairing bridges, road signs and markings, traffic signals and street lights.
How we maintain Wiltshire's roads
Reactive maintenance
This approach involves responding to issues as they arise, such as repairing potholes or replacing damaged signs. Reactive repairs are primarily driven from our scheduled inspections but also public reports such as via the MyWilts online reporting. When assessing defects, we apply intervention levels as laid out in our Highways Inspection Manual in other words, we prioritise the response based on specific safety criteria. You can find out more about how we assess roads by visiting our Roads, road care and cycle lanes webpage.
Planned maintenance
This approach involves scheduling regular maintenance tasks to prevent issues from arising in the first place or getting worse. For example, regular road resurfacing or bridge inspections to identify and address issues before they become more serious.
Asset management
This approach involves taking a long-term view of highways maintenance, and involves evaluating the condition of roads and infrastructure and prioritising maintenance tasks based on factors like condition, safety, cost and rate of deterioration.
Highways Asset Management
The local highway network is vital for businesses and communities, and effective maintenance to ensure its availability is essential to the economic development of the county. Wiltshire Council recognises the importance of maintaining and managing its highway network effectively.
Wiltshire Council is committed to the good management of the highway asset and has been implementing asset management principles for many years.
The Council's Policy and Strategy for highway infrastructure maintenance and renewal are contained in the documents below. An annual programme of surfacing and similar work is produced and reported to the Area Boards.
The overall condition of Wiltshire's roads compares favourably with the national average and the south-west average road conditions.
Wiltshire Council has identified a resilient network. This comprises the key routes into and through the county, which generally carry the most traffic, and where long term unavailability would be likely to cause serious disruption. These routes are given special consideration in connection with maintenance works and infrastructure renewal.
The majority of funding for Highways Maintenance comes from Department for Transport Grants.
In December 2023 the Department for Transport confirmed its 2024 to 25 grant allocation to the Council for Highway Maintenance purposes, with the amount standing at £20.272 million.
In addition to the above, in December 2023 the DfT announced the additional Network North funding following the cancellation of HS2. Wiltshire received an additional £2.614 million in both 2023/24 and 2024/25 giving a total additional grant of £5.228 million. This additional funding is known as the Road Resurfacing Fund and is specifically to be used for the resurfacing activities to prevent potholes and other road defects from occurring.
Also in 2023 the Council allocated an additional £10 million of funding, over 2 years, for preventative highway maintenance activities in the years 2024 to 2025, and 2025 to 2026. This together with increased DfT funding, has enabled an extensive programme of road resurfacing and treatment to be prepared for 2024/25 to improve the condition of the roads and a provisional surfacing programme has been identified for future years.
Wiltshire Council will deliver over 430,000 square metres of additional resurfacing and highways maintenance work with the new funding unlocked from the Network North plan by the Department for Transport (DfT) made possible by reallocated HS2 funding. The Council has been awarded an additional £2,614,000 for each of the years 2023/24 and 2024/25 which is being used to deliver an increased surfacing programme this year. Full details can be found in Additional Highways Funding(OpenDocument text format)[829KB](opens new window).
Surface dressing involves spraying bitumen binder (a sticky tar-like substance) on a clean, dry road surface, over which stone chippings are spread (small, consistently-sized aggregate). The surface is rolled to embed the stones into the bitumen, although some loose stones will remain on the road surface for about a week. The weight of vehicles passing over these loose stones will force them in to the bitumen to finish the new road surface. To be successful, surface dressing relies upon warm dry weather, and for this reason work is usually carried out between May and August.
Surface dressing has three main purposes:
to provide a safer, non-skid road surface
to seal and waterproof the road
to extend the life of the road surface, it could prolong the life of a road by over 10 years
In addition:
it is a relatively quick treatment as 1km of road can be completed in about 2 hours, which minimises delays to traffic
it is more environmentally friendly
it is up to three to four times cheaper than alternative ways of maintaining a road
it can improve the appearance of heavily patched roads
Surface dressing a road that was only resurfaced a few years ago
Many surface dressing schemes are carried out as 'lifecycle' or 'preventative' schemes, due to some surface materials having a life span of only 7 - 10 years before they may let in water, which can lead to deterioration and increase the likelihood of potholes. Surface dressing reseals and waterproofs these surfaces, preventing this deterioration and extending the road life for up to a further 10 years.
Where a road is identified for surface dressing but has some areas of failure in the structural layers, we aim to patch and then surface dress. Pre-surface dressing work is essential to ensure the surface dressing works effectively over the longer-term. We may patch up to a year before the surface dressing. Surface dressing over the patches can prevent water from getting into the road and provide a uniform surface.
Micro asphalt surface treatment is a preventative maintenance treatment, used to seal the existing road surface, improve the texture and helps water evaporate. This type of surface treatment can prolong the life of a road by up to 10 years. It is mostly used in residential areas with slower moving traffic.
The work involves applying a base and top layer of slurry to the existing road surface. The treatment acts as liquid when first applied, but this dries within 30 minutes and is then ready for traffic.
This involves replacing the carriageway's top bituminous layer and is used where the surface has failed or worn out and there is either the need to restore ride quality, resolve poor drainage characteristics or where there is excessive patching and reinstatements.
The carriageway surface is removed and replaced, typically to a depth of 40 to 50mm and a new layer of material (usually asphalt) is laid to extend the life of the road and ensure it remains safe for use.
When we resurface, we will seek to maintain kerb upstands to aid drainage, and we may lift or lower existing metal covers and gullies to improve ride quality.
Resurfacing will typically require a road closure to enable the works to be carried out safely and is often done overnight.
Once completed, resurfacing has a life span of 20 to 40 years.
Reconstruction involves replacing a substantial depth of the bituminous layers. Reconstruction is considered when there are extensive areas of structural failure.
When designing a reconstruction scheme, we use data from surveys to determine the right design to achieve the best results.
Reconstruction works are expensive and can be disruptive as they will mainly require a road closure to carry out the work safely.
Retexturing is a technique that is used to restore skid resistance to a surface where the surface layer is aging, but the structure is in otherwise good condition.
Specialist vehicles are used that fire ball bearings or blast high pressure water onto the surface to remove contamination and detritus.
We now use Warm mix asphalts for all of our surfacing schemes.
Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) is the generic term for a variety of technologies that enable Hot Mix Asphalt pavement material to be produced, placed and compacted at lower temperatures without compromising quality or performance.
One of the most important benefits of warm mix asphalt is that it needs less energy when being mixed. Energy consumption at the point of mixing can be reduced by up to 30%, and as a result, less fuel is needed. Lower energy use also makes warm mix asphalt less carbon intensive.
Warm Mix Asphalt is produced and mixed at temperatures roughly between 100 °C and 150 °C. Hot Mix Asphalt is produced and mixed at temperatures roughly between 120 °C and 190 °C.
Wiltshire Highways Investment Plan
The Council's Asset Management Policy and the Strategy set out the approach to be taken to maintaining the Council's highway infrastructure. The Council has applied the principles of asset management to the maintenance of its highway network for many years. This involves taking into account the lifecycle of the assets and monitoring performance of the intervention and investment strategies, with the objective of minimising expenditure while providing the required performance.
Carriageways represent the largest element of the highways asset. Their condition is assessed by means of various regular surveys, including the use of vehicle mounted lasers and visual inspections. This information is used to prioritise sites based on their condition and anticipated deterioration. A detailed analysis of current carriageway condition has been undertaken to ensure that investment in the network continues to be targeted at the right areas. A full explanation of the analysis carried out to inform the programme is set out in the Wiltshire Highways Investment Plan 2024 to 2025 a copy of which can be found below. Details of the schemes included in the forward five-year programme can also be found below.
