Pothole numbers continue to fall on Essex roads

The number of potholes on all classes of roads across Essex fell in the last three months of 2015.

There were 202 potholes and other defects on main roads in Essex at the end of the year, with just 76 on roads classed as Priority 1 and 126 on Priority 2 routes. This compares to a total of 258 in the previous quarter, which represents a fall of 35% on Priority 1 roads and 10% on Priority 2 roads.

Priority 1 roads are Essex County Council’s strategic main roads – including the A414, A127 and A133 – which carry large volumes of high speed traffic through and around the county, connecting the main centres.

Priority 2 roads are other main roads that connect Priority 1 roads with local roads, including the B184, B1026 and B181.

The number of potholes on local roads has also fallen by 8% over the same period, down from 4,380 to 4,028, continuing the successful trend of the previous three months.

Councillor Eddie Johnson, Essex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways Delivery, said: “We have been putting a great deal of effort behind reducing carriageway defects across the whole Essex road network and I am encouraged by the latest figures.

“It shows we are making excellent progress on roads that are most important to Essex’s economy, as well as with the programme covering local roads that we started in 2014.

“We have benefitted from the unusually mild weather which enabled works to continue and also prevented seasonal deterioration of the roads. But with the weather is getting colder we are expecting the number of potholes and defects to rise.

“Our focus on maintaining local roads will continue in tandem with improving the condition of our priority Essex routes.”

18 January 2016