Huge repair bill for Britain's potholes

Following one of the coldest winters in recent memory, Britain’s roads have stacked up an estimated £10 billion (€11.5 billion) repair bill just for potholes. These are caused by the freeze/thaw cycle: water seeps into cracks in the road surface, expands when frozen and then breaks up when it thaws. It has been estimated that in Britain there is at least one pothole for every 110m (sometimes many more) and that it will take at least 15 years to fix the problem.
May 15, 2012 Read time: 1 min
The coldest winter for many years has exploited Britain's roads, resulting in thousands of potholes
Following one of the coldest winters in recent memory, Britain’s roads have stacked up an estimated £10 billion (€11.5 billion) repair bill just for potholes.

These are caused by the freeze/thaw cycle: water seeps into cracks in the road surface, expands when frozen and then breaks up when it thaws.

It has been estimated that in Britain there is at least one pothole for every 110m (sometimes many more) and that it will take at least 15 years to fix the problem.

At present it is estimated that, apart from main routes such as motorways, there are some 1.6 million potholes on Britain’s 390,000km of secondary roads.

According to David Weeks, director of the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), the country’s road network is in danger of falling to “Third World” levels.

Asphalt milling, paving & compaction Materials Maintenance

Related Content

  • UK death rate not falling fast enough in The Reported Road Casualties Great Britain Report 2013
    September 26, 2014
    Road safety lobby groups have criticised Britain for pushing down its annual road fatality rate by a further 2% in the past year, the lowest figure since records began in 1926. The Reported Road Casualties Great Britain 2013 (RRCGB) Annual Report, published in September 2014, reveals that 1,713 people were killed in road accidents in the country during 2013, with the number of people seriously injured down by 6% to 21,657 versus 2012.
    Read More
  • Steel wire barriers provide rock fall protection
    February 6, 2012
    In Gibraltar, where the entire population lives on or close to the huge limestone rock that gives the nation its name, the issue of rock fall protection is taken very seriously. Here, a scheme to install a network of rock fall catchment fences has just been completed, which will allow the re-opening of a critically important road at the south-eastern end of the Rock, which was closed following a significant rock fall occurrence in 2002.
    Read More
  • Africa’s road builders need a reliable supply of good-quality bitumen
    May 8, 2015
    Crying out for consistency Getting hold of the right product, or any product at all, is often the challenge, as delegates to the Argus Africa Bitumen conference heard Many parts of Africa have ambitious road building plans for the next few decades. But clients and contractors are facing problems with the quality and supply of bitumen, delegates at the Argus Africa Bitumen conference were told. If there was one overriding message to come out of the conference, held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in Feb
    Read More
  • Treating Russia’s bridges
    April 11, 2013
    Russia is home to all of the world’s climatic zones and to over 6,000 bridges. Rain and wind, sun and heat, snow and ice mean that the Russian weather is extreme, and because its bridges need special protection their structural elements are insulated with bituminous sheeting. Evonik says that temperature stability and long life are key criteria for selecting insulating materials, and this has led to an increase in the use of special sheeting, some of which has been modified with its Vestoplast product. Ove
    Read More

Highlighted Content