Staffordshire County Council has an extensive highway asset valued at over £7 billion providing benefit to all as stakeholders. The highway maintainable at public expense is the largest and most visible community asset for which the county council is responsible. The way it is managed and maintained has a direct impact on the county council’s ability to deliver on its priority and other outcomes.
Residents, businesses and visitors all depend upon a good reliable service from Staffordshire’s highway network to sustain its economic growth and transportation needs.
Staffordshire County Council’s Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Plan (HIAMP) details how it manages the highway asset to ensure the county meets it priority outcomes, taking into account finance and the current asset condition, differing stakeholder needs, localised priorities and the benefits they provide.
The County Council is responsible for over 6200km of carriageway, 4360km of footway, over 1000 structures and an array of other network infrastructure. In managing the network the council works with the other managing parties to plan a joined up approach that enables a seamless service to stakeholders throughout the county.
Staffordshire County Council is committed to an asset management approach encompassing the outcome benefits of a whole cost lifecycle approach, ensuring the most efficient and effective use of the available highway budget and demonstrating the case for additional funding where this is appropriate. To deliver real benefit on the highway network, an extra £50 million will be invested in maintaining and improving Staffordshire’s highways over the next three years, alongside a total of £53 million being spent on a range of major projects, vital road improvements and general road maintenance in 24/25.
Surface dressing, and other preventative treatments are an important part of Staffordshire’s approach to highway maintenance-sealing and protecting its roads from potholes forming.
Staffordshire surface dressed 376 roads during 2023 and 297 roads during 2022, covering approximately 275 miles of its network. The plan for 2024 is 154 miles across 457 roads.
An approximation as each site has varying road widths. An average of 6m has been used for this calculation.
Surface dressing in Staffordshire is delivered via its specialist contractor, RMS, which has a long-term arrangement with the council’s strategic delivery partner, Amey, to deliver work across the county.
Having invested a significant amount of money into surface dressing over the last decade, the results show it has had a positive effect on the network. Road condition surveys and network modelling show a decrease in the amount of its roads falling into red condition.
Daniel Vale, Highway Asset Manager at Staffordshire County Council said: “We have used surface dressing and other preventative surface treatments on a frequent basis for many years. It remains an important tool in our highway asset management strategy to help prevent potholes from forming. “Even through periods of national austerity on the local road network, through an ongoing commitment to preventative maintenance, we were able to resist the decline in condition that would otherwise lead to a significant increase in structurally failed (red) routes,” he added.