Councils across England will be given a slice of more than £200m for road maintenance and pothole repairs
Transport secretary Chris Grayling has announced the allocation of an extra £50m for councils for potholes and flood resilience as well as £151m to reward examples of councils’ best practice – funding that could resurface more than 1,000 miles of road.
These funds come from the £6.6bn the government is providing in the 6 years to 2021 to improve local roads.
As part of the government’s work to prevent potholes in the future, the Department for Transport will fund early stage research into new surface materials or pothole repair techniques, such as 3D printing. A digital hub will also be set up for experts to share and develop innovations.
Transport secretary Chris Grayling said: “Every motorist knows that potholes have been a problem in the last few years. That is why the government is continuing to step up its funding to local authorities to address this.
“It is now up to highways authorities to innovate and use new technologies to solve the problem.”
The investment is on top of the £725m local authorities will receive in 2019/20, based on the infrastructure they maintain, including length of roads, number of bridges and street lights.
The government has already announced it will be providing £23m for trials of new technologies to develop pothole-free roads, such as using kinetic energy to heat surfaces, recycling plastic waste into a harder-wearing surface or installing sensors to predicts where issues might occur.
