Highways and road maintenance

Central Bedfordshire has around 1,400km of road, which laid flat would be the equivalent distance from Dunstable to Dortmund.

Keeping our road network in a good condition with the resources available is a challenge and we need to budget our resource to look cover both planned maintenance programmes and reactive works to problems as they crop up.

Our aim is to keep the roads in a safe and serviceable condition by maximising the amount of planned maintenance work whilst also maintaining safety by repairing reports of problem.

Planned maintenance

Our planned maintenance is where we decide in advance which roads we are going to work on. This approach makes our budget go further, helps to prolong the life of a stretch of road and reduces the likelihood of problems occurring in future.

We use the Network Management Maintenance Plan (PDF) and our Asset Management Strategy (PDF) to assess the quality of the road surface and use this information to create an accurate picture of the overall condition of the network

We assess the quality of the road surface and use this information to create an accurate picture of the overall condition of the road network. We rate the condition of the roads using a simple red, amber and green system. 

• Red – maintenance is required
• Amber – maintenance is required soon
• Green – maintenance not required

Prioritising planned maintenance

The most cost effective use of our resources is to target the 'amber' condition roads that are in danger of becoming red and to then tackle the existing red condition roads. Through this approach we are able to stop roads getting into a condition where a more expensive preventative treatment is needed, or where potholes or other defects might become more common.

An 'amber' condition road will more often require a less costly road treatment such as surface dressing which lengthens its usable lifetime.

There are other factors which affect our decision:

• we mainly prioritise our busier roads which have the biggest impact on the people who use them
• we may decide that a road in poor condition, such as a red rating, is unlikely to get any worse and so we can delay maintenance until we can plan a long-term repair programme. We will, however, ensure we maintain its safety in the meantime, through reactive maintenance
• we often receive funding that can only be used for specific types of road. An example of this is when we recently bid successfully for money from the government to improve the condition of our lesser used roads that are important to the local economy

This approach means that you could see us working on roads that are, on the face of it, in a better condition than others, however this is done to maximise the long term benefit for the money that we have. 

Picking the right treatment

Picking the right treatment is essential for making the best use of our highways budget to keep the roads in the best condition possible

Over time, road surfaces become worn out due to the volume of traffic that use them and the different extremes of weather that affect them. 

Different surface treatments are used according to all the circumstances of the road, such as the current condition, how busy the road is and the most efficient treatment for the future, how many years of good condition will result from the money spent on the treatment. 

Here is an overview to show why we use each different type of surface treatment

Carriageway – resurfacing

Resurfacing is where the existing surface is removed and a completely new surface is laid as a replacement. This treatment is used where the road is badly worn and needs to take heavy traffic and last a long time. It is expensive and slow.

Carriageway – dressing

Surface dressing is used where the surface is in reasonably good condition, but needs some quick, overall improvement which can last up to ten years. We can cover a large area very quickly at relatively low cost. We use Surface Dressing on most of our surfacing programme.

Carriageway – restructuring 

Restructuring is only used in limited areas where the road is very badly out of shape. Using the previous road surface, a durable new surface can be laid, and logistics make it easier to re-use existing materials rather than bring in new stone. It is marginally more expensive treatment per area covered than resurfacing or other treatments.