Skip to main content

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.

Related Content

  • More investment needed for road maintenance
    March 13, 2014
    As the Northern Hemisphere recovers from yet another tough winter, the road system in many countries can be seen to have taken a heavy battering. Potholes abound in many countries, the legacy of cold weather, and this has been made worse by heavy rain that has caused widespread flooding and also damaged bridges.
  • Pothole damage to be repaired
    February 21, 2012
    Councils in England will be given more than £100 million (€e117 million) of extra funding to spend on repairing potholes, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has said.
  • UK: cash released for pothole repairs
    February 16, 2021
    UK’s Department of Transport said it takes around £50 (€57 / $69) to fix a pothole.
  • €14.47bn to fix England and Wales local road network, ALARM Survey claims
    April 3, 2014
    The 19th Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) Survey published today reports that the estimated cost to get England and Wales’ local road network back into reasonable condition has increased to €14.47 billion (£12 billion) from €12.06 billion (£10.5 billion) in 2013. For the second year in a row, more than two million potholes (2,010,749) were filled in England and Wales over the course of the previous year.