Gloucestershire County Council has said contractor Amey, which has come in for local criticism, is now meeting most of its targets as it announced a trial of a ‘game changing’ mobile asphalt production unit.
A report to be presented to councillors on Wednesday (14 September) shows Amey to be meeting the majority of its key performance indicators.
Gloucestershire said Amey had also completed a county-wide programme of surface dressing to prepare the county’s roads for the winter. It added that highways crews are ‘well underway’ with its £3.1m pothole fund patching scheme. In April the council was given just over £1m from the Government’s Pothole Action Fund.
Amey's mobile unit mixes aggregates and bitumen in situ
The council said this investment ‘has seen year on year improvements to the standard of roads, as well as an increase in public satisfaction’.
The firm’s performance has previously been criticised by councillors of all the main parties on the council.
Cllr Vernon Smith, cabinet member for highways, said: ‘Although the majority of the statistics in this report show improvements, we’re not complacent and know that we’ve still got plenty of work to do.
‘We will continue to monitor the work that Amey do, to get the best possible outcomes for the county’s tax payers.’
The council also announced that it would be trialling a new mobile asphalt production unit that can mix aggregates and bitumen in situ, meaning that crews do not need to return to a depot for a supply of asphalt each time it is needed.
Cllr Smith said, ‘This is big news for Gloucestershire. These pioneering new machines are a real game changer for road repairs. Technology has really moved on and we’ll be able to carry out permanent hot asphalt repairs on site without having to go back to the quarry. We’ll be able to save time and work much more flexibly and efficiently, and there’s hardly any wasted material at all, so they’re more cost effective too.’
In July, Transport Network reported that, following positive trials, Amey was routinely using a mobile unit as part of the Hampshire highways maintenance service it operates.
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