Road improvement works being rolled out

Work is getting underway on the council’s summer programme to make travelling on Northumberland’s roads a smoother experience.

 

Around 60 miles of roads across 40 areas will be repaired and improved in the county’s annual ‘surface dressing’ initiative.

 

This repair is used where the existing road surface has worn over a period of several years. This can lead to minor cracks, allowing water to enter and cause damage which can reduce the skidding resistance of the road.

 

Surface dressing seals the cracks, protecting the underlying road structure and restoring the texture and skidding resistance of the road. This year a total of 580,000 square metres of highway will be improved.

 

Where required, teams have also carried out patching works along the length of road before the surface dressing treatment takes place.

 

This year’s programme will see road surfaces improved across the county from the Scottish border down to the south east corner of the county and over into Tynedale.

 

The work forms part of the council’s Local Transport Plan Programme, and this year the authority will be investing £26m in maintaining and improving the county’s highway and transport network.

 

Glen Sanderson, Cabinet Member for Environment and Local Services, said: “These roads are often lifelines between rural communities and it’s vital they are kept in a good state of repair.

 

“Our annual programme of surface dressing will see improvements to roads across the county. During the works there may be minor delays for road users but these will be kept to a minimum.

 

“We’d ask drivers to take extra care and follow the speed limit signs on the recently surface dressed roads until essential road sweeping has taken place to remove loose road chippings.”

 

More details of the work on this year’s surface dressing programme is available at bit.ly/surfacedressing19