Long road ahead for ELC repairs

Kirsty Gibbins • Published 16 Feb 2012 09:22 8 Comments

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SIGNIFICANT further investment by the council would be required to carry out a "full reconstruction" of East Lothian's damaged roads network, an expert has declared.

Councillors had initially allocated £2.5 million for road repairs in 2010/11 but were forced into a rethink following the most severe winter for 50 years in 2010, which saw extensive damage to East Lothian's roads network.

The resulting 'severe deterioration' of roads resulted in an extra £3 million being invested in the repairs/resurfacing programme. The council also spent £300,000 on two key pieces of equipment: a planer that mills and removes road surfaces ready for relaying, and a paver which lays new surfaces.

The local authority's Policy and Performance Review Committee received an update on the progress of repairs at a meeting in Haddington on January 31.

Councillors heard that since June 2010, 57,116 metres (35½ miles) of rural roads had received a surface dressing treatment, amounting to an increase of 28 per cent on the 2009-10 programme.

The council has also surfaced/repaired 11,479m (7.1 miles) of the county's rural roads network with a further 7,820m (4.9 miles) proposed by the end of March - which equates to 3.3 per cent of the network.

In terms of urban streets, 15 schemes have been completed and a further six are planned. This equates to a current resurfaced length of 5,424m and 1,610m planned - amounting to 2.2 per cent of the urban network.

In addition, works are currently ongoing permanently patching urban streets and town arterial routes. It is planned to complete 4,632 square metres of permanent patching.

However, the meeting heard that 'surface dressing' had an expected lifespan of only seven years, before further extensive repairs would be required, rather than a more permanent solution which would secure the network for about 20 years.

Brian Cooper, the council's senior transportation manager, said: "The current level of investment at £5.5 million allows East Lothian Council to keep pace with the required repairs programme.

"If we were to reduce that we would begin to see a rapid deterioration.

"We will not see any significant improvement in these percentages if the future level of investment remains the same. It would require significant further investiment to increase those percentages.

"For large sections of the network we're not going for full reconstruction, we're going for something lesser."

Drainage improvements were also highlighted at the meeting. A total of 40 priority schemes have been or are currently being investigated, with 22 completed to date.

Councillor Norman Hampshire (Labour) said more action was needed to make Scottish Water take responsibility for ensuring the county's drainage systems were sufficiently upgraded to deal with East Lothian's expanding population. He highlighted recent flooding in Dunbar as an example of an area in desperate need of enhancement.

"The council needs to start taking action against Scottish Water or the council is going to be held responsible," said Mr Hampshire.

In total, £972,187 will be spent on upgrading the county's roads and drainage systems until the end of March.

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

Socialist
Unregistered User
Feb 16, 13:16
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Lets face it folks in the case of road repairs no matter what political party is in power , "you are dammed if you do and your dammed if you don't"

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Pot Holes R Us
Unregistered User
Feb 16, 16:16
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Don't blame the 2 bad winters, its years of neglect that has allowed our roads and pavements to get in a poor state and the poor management of the repairs.

If the Council repaired the "pot holes" when the first appeared, but no the Council elect to waste thousands sticking a bit of tar in the hole.

few days later the tar is gone and the hole is bigger.

Why don't they dig out the pot hole, seal it and tar it over properly? (hold on that would require common sense).

Recommend? Yes 8 No 2
Pot Holes R Us
Unregistered User
Feb 16, 16:21
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And how much time is wasted taking machinery from town to another only to come back a few weeks later to the same town to do another piece of work.

The stretch of the coast road between Musselburgh and Pretonpans is in a poor state, the bit that has the most pots holes isn't getting done at the moment.

Why not just shut the stretch of road off and concentrate on getting the job done efficiently and more quickly.

Its amazing how long the Council road workers can stretch a job out

Recommend? Yes 6 No 5
aj2017
Unregistered User
Feb 16, 20:04
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Do you honestly believe East Lothian Council is unique, this is a problem throughout the UK, lack of investment from local and central government is the problem. ELC probably could be more efficient, what Council couldn’t but they are expected to undertake repairs for the entire County with limited money. Full reconstruction is what is required, but the cost per m of this is beyond the scope of the money made available. Therefore a band aid is all that can be done. More investment is what is required and for councillors to keep there nose out and let those that know a thing or two get on with the job.

Recommend? Yes 8 No 3
Socialist
Unregistered User
Feb 17, 09:53
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aj2017

Actually you are right, however if a Councillor can sort a road then they do get some brownie points, its just a pity that Councillors have not got more say in how they allocate Council houses, then we may no have to deal with some of the problems that Councils are now having to deal with, especially in the new build.

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Pot Holes R Us
Unregistered User
Feb 17, 15:54
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aj2017

have you seen the way the Council repair roads.

watched the Council workers taking ages on a stretch near us.........

sitting about doing nothing for hours.....

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aj2017
Unregistered User
Feb 17, 19:39
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Pot Hole if they are sitting about doing nothing, record it report it.

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Pot Holes R Us
Unregistered User
Feb 19, 18:24
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its interesting to see the Council quote metres to make it sound like they've done more.

so basically they have 11.5 km

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