County gets Extra help for repairs

14 June 2006

Road-users in Hertfordshire are set to benefit from an additional programme of re-surfacing works, delivered under its own Highways Extra branding by a newly-appointed contractor.
The county council has allocated an extra £10M from its central reserves for maintenance of roads and footways in 2006/07, boosting its maintenance spending by 20%. It follows a MORI survey showing that improving the state of roads and paths was a high priority for council taxpayers. County engineers had also advised that highway asset-management plans confirmed that the network would continue to deteriorate at current investment levels.
Hertfordshire has awarded a separate contract to Lafarge for the works. A joint team has drawn up an initial programme of carriageway surface dressing and microasphalt schemes, and footway microsurfacing. Phase two will comprise conventional carriageway and footway surfacing works.
‘This investment is in direct response to what Hertfordshire residents have told us – that improving roads and pavements is a top priority for them,’ said Cllr Stuart Pile, executive member for highways and transport. It would also help the county achieve its local transport plan targets and begin to stabilise the condition of the network.
This would require a sustained increase in investment, but prudential borrowing had been made difficult by the local government funding system, he added.
‘We did consider borrowing about £100M but, after the Government’s change in the funding mechanism for local government, we are now below the floor. This means that any borrowing is not supported.’ Council tax could not be raised to cover the interest on a large loan, even if phased over 10 years.
Hertfordshire would soon consider other ‘innovative ways’ to fund increased highway maintenance in future years, Pile added.
Road maintenance in the county is delivered by Hertfordshire Highways, a partnership with Mouchel Parkman and Amey Lafarge.
‘The additional work programme is too large to have simply added it to the existing contract,’ he explained.

Register now for full access

Register just once to get unrestricted, real-time coverage of the issues and challenges facing UK transport and highways engineers.

Full website content includes the latest news, exclusive commentary from leading industry figures and detailed topical analysis of the highways, transportation, environment and place-shaping sectors. Use the link below to register your details for full, free access.

Already a registered? Login

Sign In

County gets Extra help for repairs

order biaxin tablets

buying biaxin

ordering clarithromycin

Register now for full access

Login