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Additional Government Funding 2018/19

Local Highways Maintenance Funding – Budget 2018 - £420 million in 2018/19

In October 2018, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in his Budget Statement that the Government was allocating a further £420 million of new money for local highways maintenance.

For Suffolk County Council, this meant an additional highway maintenance allocation of £9.67 million to be spent by the end of March 2019.

Given the limited timeframe in which important maintenance work in Suffolk could be delivered, the decision was taken to invest this additional government funding across highway infrastructure assets as detailed below:

• £2.184 million of machine surfacing; • £3.555 million on surface dressing preparatory works; • £1.577 million on thermal road and permanent carriageway patching repairs; • £427k of footway surfacing works; • £484k of additional maintenance to highway structures; • £505k of drainage improvement works; • £552k of additional investment into street lighting assets; • £457k in road marking refreshments on strategic routes.

The following pages provide some examples of the work completed in Suffolk by the end of March 2019.

Carriageways

A1101 & C600 recycling schemes

Areas of our fen roads sustained drought damage because of the sustained hot and dry summer of 2018.

Engineers used an in-situ recycling technique to re-use the existing road materials, removing significant undulations and settlement, caused by underlying peat shrinkage, and to provide resilience and strength to these fragile assets.

As the technique recycles the existing surface, no waste is taken from site, thereby reducing vehicle journeys and CO2 emissions.

C600 - Pulverising and mixing existing asphalt layers C600 - Re-profiling to remove undulations

A1101 - before and after

C600 - before and after 1

Thermal road repairs

Traditional cut-out pothole repairs, whilst dealing with the immediate safety concern, can leave weak points which let in water and can lead to further potholes.

With the additional Government funding, Suffolk Highways undertook a trial of a thermal road repair system.

This system involves the heating of an area of road surface around a pothole. Additional hot asphalt material is added to the heated area, in conjunction with a bitumen binder area to reinvigorate the existing bound material. The treated area is levelled and compacted to leave a seamless repair, reducing the potential for weak points.

As no existing material is removed from site, this recycling technique avoids material going to landfill. As no new material is required from an asphalt plant, more time can be spent on a productive basis resulting in an increased number of permanent road repairs to be completed on a daily basis.

Thermal road repairs - before and after

Thermal road repairs - before and after

Resurfacing

Essential carriageway resurfacing was completed at 13 ‘high-stress’ sites around Suffolk, totalling an additional 4.4km above Suffolk Highways’ planned maintenance programme for 2018/19.

Below are some before and after photographs of our works in Stowmarket and on the outskirts of Bury St. Edmunds near to the A14.

Ipswich Road, Stowmarket – before and after resurfacing works

A1302/A14 - Westley Interchange - before and after resurfacing works

Road marking refreshment on strategic routes

Road markings refreshment works were completed at locations forming part of Suffolk’s strategic (high-use) road network.

Lining works were completed at locations on the:

A131 A1022 A1071 A1189 A142 A1214

A1214 - before and after road marking refreshment works

Footways - Haverhill Town Centre Paving

Without additional funding from the Government, Suffolk Highways were originally only going to be able to afford to repair damage to the town centre paving areas with asphalt repairs or cheaper non-matching paving slabs.

We have taken the opportunity to use some of this additional maintenance funding to replace these areas of the town centre paving with matching paving slabs whilst also replacing other cracked and rocking slabs as part of the works.

Investing in this way has improved the aesthetic appearance of the town centre paving whilst reducing the need for Suffolk Highways to return for ad-hoc repairs in the immediate future.

Haverhill Town Centre Paving - before

Haverhill Town Centre Paving - during and after works

Structures – Rodbridge, Long Melford waterproofing and deck repairs

Waterproofing elements of highway structures provide a protective layer of resistance to chlorides and vehicle chemicals such as fuel, oils and hydraulic fluids which accelerate the deterioration of critical load bearing concrete elements.

The additional government funding enabled Suffolk Highways to undertake these essential works earlier than planned, reducing further corrosion to the bridge deck supports.

Drainage improvements – A12 filter drain replacement

Filter drains are often used when it is not practicable to install a surface water drainage system such as gullies and pipes which take surface runoff to water treatment plants.

A filter drain is a trench lined with a geotextile material and filled with gravel. Surface water from the adjacent road filters through the gravel layers which traps sediment, organic matter and oil residues which can then be broken down by bacterial action through time. The filtered water is then led to a watercourse via a piped system.

Over time, the gravel layers fill with silt and can become overgrown, significantly impacting on their efficiency. Suffolk Highways has excavated and replaced around 1,200 tonnes of material at the A12 site near Wangford.

The completed work has improved highway drainage on this key strategic route between Ipswich and Lowestoft.

Rod Bridge, Long Melford – before, during and after repair works

Filter drain replacement – before, during and after works

Vehicle Restraint System (crash barriers)

Suffolk Highways used the additional government funding to upgrade, to the latest specification, the aging ‘wire-rope’ vehicle restraint system on the A140 at Scole.

Whilst undertaking the upgrading works, Suffolk Highways took the opportunity to replace several rusted illuminated road signs and posts.

These were replaced with high-reflectivity non-illuminated signs, maintaining their high visibility to road users whilst helping reduce our electricity bill.

Replacement safety barriers and road signs – before and after works