Information on our planned road and pavement maintenance programmes.

Maintaining our roads

Roads deteriorate due to traffic usage, weather conditions and the need for utility companies to lay and maintain their equipment. These factors can cause cracks and holes to appear on the surface, a loss of skid resistance and uneven, undulating surfaces, which affect ride quality.

Surrey County Council is responsible for maintaining approximately 4800 km (3000miles) of roads and uses a number of methods to do this. Minor repairs such as potholes are repaired throughout the year when they come to our attention. Along with this we have a planned Highway Maintenance programme where we carry out resurfacing treatments such as surface dressing to improve the skid resistance and increase the lifespan of roads. Major maintenance is undertaken where there are problems in the underlying structure of the road. Our budget for highway maintenance for 2011-2012, which includes pothole repairs as well as the planned maintenance, is just over 21 million pounds and so we have to prioritise the work carefully to ensure that we use these limited funds to the best effect.

Maintaining our pavements

Pavements deteriorate due to pedestrian use, weather conditions and the need for utility companies to lay and maintain their equipment. These factors can cause cracks and holes to appear in the pavement and can make them uneven.

Surrey County Council is responsible for maintaining over 10 square km of pavement (nearly 4 square miles) and use a number of methods to do this. Minor repairs such as potholes or raised block paving are repaired throughout the year as they come to our attention. Alongside this we have a planned pavement maintenance programme where we carry out slurry treatments to take out small imperfections and increase the lifespan of the pavement, or reconstruct pavements where the structure has significantly deteriorated. Reconstruction also includes replacing block paving with asphalt pavements, which are less of a safety hazard and are easier and cheaper to maintain.

We have calculated that the backlog of pavement works needed to bring all of Surrey's pavements to a good standard will cost over 80 million pounds. This cost has mounted because of the historic lack of government funding over many years. Our budget for planned pavement maintenance for 2011-2012 is just £900,000 and so we have to prioritise the work carefully to ensure that we use these limited funds to the best effect.

Further information on maintaining our roads and pavements

• How we prioritise road maintenance
• What major road maintenance involves
• Resurfacing our roads
• How we prioritise pavement maintenance
• Frequently asked questions about pavements