The Department for Transport expects all local highways authorities to publish information about their highways maintenance activities to help local taxpayers see the difference that funding is making in their areas.
Our highway network
Surrey County Council are responsible for a high volume of highway assets. Lengths of the networks we are responsible for are shown below.
Lengths of highway, pavements and cycleways (km) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A road | B and C roads | U roads | Total roads | Pavements | Other public rights of way | Cycleways |
| 598 | 1014 | 3253 | 4844 | 5672 | 3502 | 550 |
In addition, we are responsible for the numbers and lengths of Structures and other assets below.
| Highway Structures (Bridges, Retaining walls & Culverts) | Traffic Signals | Safety Barriers |
|---|---|---|
| 1750 | 667 | 110 miles |
Included amongst additional assets that form part of the highway are streetlights, signs, highway trees, verges and gullies.
Highways maintenance spending figures
| Highways maintenance spending | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Capital allocated by DfT (£,000s) | Capital spend (£,000s) | Revenue Spend (£,000) | Estimate of % spent on preventative maintenance | Estimate of % spent on reactive maintenance |
| 2025/26 (projected) | £37,255 | £86,237 | £36,571 | 61% | 39% |
| 2024/25 | £28,592 | £100,476 | £34,728 | 57% | 43% |
| 2023/24 | £32,032 | £111,497 | £31,325 | 66% | 34% |
| 2022/23 | £25,690 | £55,780 | £28,283 | 53% | 47% |
| 2021/22 | £25,690 | £51,995 | £28,511 | 50% | 50% |
| 2020/21 | £33,531 | £56,975 | £26,498 | 51% | 49% |
Additional information on spending
The funding shown in the table above funds the maintenance of our roads, pavements, bridges and structures, safety barriers, traffic signals and drainage (excluding gully cleaning).
Capital spend is used for works such as resurfacing roads, maintaining bridges, and refurbishing traffic signals and is also used for some reactive works such as patching potholes and rebuilding roads after voids or diesel spills. Revenue spend is used for reactive responses such as responding to flooding or fallen trees and fixing county property that is damaged due to road traffic collisions where the culprit isn’t known. Revenue also funds routine maintenance works such as painting bridges, fixing faults on traffic signals and re-tensioning safety barriers.
Within the funding table above, we have assumed all of our revenue spend as reactive spend and any non-planned capital works also as reactive. All planned capital works are assumed as preventative spend.
We have resurfaced over 486 miles of carriageway and improved 229 miles of footways in the last 5 years along with carrying out 262 traffic signal refurbishments, 88 structures schemes, 36 drainage schemes and 17 safety barrier schemes.
We target 60% of our capital preventative budgets at structural maintenance including major strengthening of roads and bridges; fine milling of concrete roads and reconstruction of slabs; in-situ recycling of rural roads or edge haunch construction; full reconstruction of pavements both modular and asphalt.
Surface treatments are carried out using the other 40%, mostly using surface dressing, but also asphalt preservation or rejuvenation of roads, and slurry sealing of pavements. Surface treatments may also be determined in locations where the priority is to reduce risk such as skid resistance. It may also be used where we have carried out larger patching to prolong the work sealing over joints. We are now repairing multiple potholes, or other defects in the road that are close together, as one patch. These bigger patches last longer and provide a more resilient road network.
Decisions on how we split budgets between structural maintenance and surface treatments is informed through deterioration modelling using different product application scenarios and budget allocations. Asset condition e.g. Bridge Condition Index (BCI) or Road Condition Index (RCI), that has been determined from nationally standardised surveys is used in the modelling.
With regards to the budget for reactive works, on average over the past 5 years approximately 13% of the spend on reactive maintenance is used for filling potholes. The number of potholes filled in the past 5 years can be seen in the table below.
| Estimate of number of potholes filled | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
| 53,611 | 50,881 | 56,509 | 52,458 | 59,924 |
Condition of local roads
| Year | Percentage of A roads in each condition category | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Red | Amber | Green | |
| 2020 | 7% | 28% | 66% |
| 2021 | 7% | 27% | 67% |
| 2022 | 5% | 25% | 70% |
| 2023 | 4% | 23% | 73% |
| 2024 | 4% | 24% | 71% |
A roads are surveyed once every two years in both directions with half completed each year.
The values of the table below may not equal 100% due to rounding.
| Year | Percentage of B and C roads in each condition category | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Red | Amber | Green | |
| 2020 | 7% | 29% | 64% |
| 2021 | 7% | 29% | 65% |
| 2022 | 6% | 25% | 69% |
| 2023 | 5% | 26% | 69% |
| 2024 | 5% | 26% | 69% |
B and C roads are surveyed once every two years, with B roads surveyed in opposite directions each year and half of C roads surveyed in one direction each year
The values of the table below may not equal 100% due to rounding.
| Year | Percentage of U roads in the red category |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 16% |
| 2021 | 13% |
| 2022 | 15% |
| 2023 | 21% |
| 2024 | 22% |
Unclassified roads are traditionally surveyed once every 4 years.
Road condition assessments on the local classified road network in England are currently made predominantly using Surface Condition Assessment for the National Network of Roads (SCANNER) laser-based technology.
A number of parameters measured in these surveys are used to produce a road condition indicator which is categorised into three condition categories:
- Green – No further investigation or treatment required
- Amber – Maintenance may be required soon
- Red – Should be considered for maintenance
From 2026/27 a new methodology will be used based on the British Standards Institution (BSI) PAS2161 standard. Local Highway Authorities will be required to use a supplier that has been accredited against PAS2161. This new standard will categorise roads into five categories instead of three to help government gain a more detailed understanding of road condition in England.
Further details are available on the Condition of local authority managed roads webpage.
Additional information on condition
With regards to the condition data of the unclassified road network, the Covid 19 pandemic lockdowns means 2021 is missing data on approximately ¼ of the network thereby giving a lower red score.
In 2022 we changed our survey method and frequency for unclassified roads to one that uses video and machine learning technology. This has led to a steady increase in red condition during the transition period. A comparison between the two survey methods indicated that the new technology would lead to an increase in the % of network in red condition by 5% compared to the previous method. Therefore, the increase in red condition shown in 2023 and 2024 is primarily due to the change in survey methodology rather than a significant deterioration in condition.
We expect to fully transition to a survey frequency of once every 2 years on unclassified roads using this new technology by the end of 2026.
Plans
Overall strategy
The highway asset is the most valuable infrastructure under our control. Our approach to asset management is to adopt the recommendations within the Code of Practice for a Well-Managed Highway Infrastructure. By maintaining sufficient data, we can better understand the value of our assets and consider optimal allocation of resources and operational delivery required to achieve expectations over the asset lifecycle.
The desired outcome of an asset management approach is to maximise value for money, ensuring informed investment decisions can be made, but also to manage risk and maintain a highway environment that is safe and secure and accessible for our customers, and identify benefits from efficiencies. We will achieve our aim through effective record making and retention, monitoring outcomes, including the longevity of completed works. This provides us with real world performance data to better inform decision makers.
The main purpose of highway maintenance is to maintain the highway network for the safe and convenient movement of people and goods. The core objectives of highway maintenance are to deliver a safe, serviceable, and sustainable network. Using preventative maintenance achieves these objectives by minimising cost over time and maintaining reliability.
If the road or bridge structure or other highway asset is allowed to degrade to a critical point just prior to failure, then all the residual benefit of previous maintenance may be lost. Therefore, the aim is to enhance ‘condition’ rather than ‘quality’. This can be achieved by arresting the rate of deterioration rather than looking to restore to as new in every case.
Specific plans for 2025/26
We will focus on improving the most used roads, our A and B network, with a higher proportion of budget allocation compared to the lesser used roads on the C and D road network. We will also continue to improve our concrete roads in residential locations using innovative solutions such as fine milling. Footway priorities will benefit from our updated network hierarchy policy which now targets safer routes to schools as well as prioritising other highly used areas such as routes to town centres and transport hubs.
During the current financial year 2025/26 we plan to resurface a total 92 miles of carriageways and improve 30 miles of footways. We are also planning to deliver 14 bridge major maintenance and strengthening schemes and 5 bridge reconstructions as well as 33 traffic signal refurbishments and will be carrying out approximately 20 schemes to improve highway drainage and reduce flooding.
We have developed our strategy to prevent rather than cure and have reviewed how we carry out pothole repairs to provide more durable repairs, for example carrying out larger patches to remove deteriorated areas beyond the pothole rather than just fixing the pothole itself. The current trend in pothole numbers is showing an increase, however that is because we are being more proactive with our pothole repairs and have enabled our repair gangs to fix other potholes they identify in the vicinity of a pothole that has been reported by our inspectors or customers. Our teams are routinely trialling new techniques to repair potholes as well as video and Artificial intelligence technology to find them quicker.
Streetworks
As the Highways Authority for Surrey, we work closely with utility companies who supply power, water, gas and telecoms to our communities. Regular individual meetings are held with each utility company to review their performance and discuss any issues. We also hold quarterly works coordination meetings where all future programmes are tabled and reviewed, including our own resurfacing programme.
To make full use of available legislation to protect any newly resurfaced assets, we issue Section 58 notices (New Roads and Street Works Act'91) for all our large-scale resurfacing works at least three months before the works begin. This maximises opportunities for utility companies to bring forward any planned works for completion, before our resurfacing activities.
In 2024 we set up a “Streetworks Taskforce” jointly with the 14 utility companies who carry out most work in Surrey. Through the taskforce we are working on initiatives to provide improvements for the travelling public in areas including; collaboration, signage and communication.
For more on how we work with utility companies, see our Frequently asked questions about utility companies and their roadworks page.
Climate change, resilience and adaptation
As set out in our ambitions and objectives we work collaboratively with our supply chain partners to adopt low carbon operational solutions as standard, giving consideration to environmental impact and whole life cost.
Improving and adapting Surrey’s maintenance activities to reduce the environmental impact of works while improving the resilience of the network to mitigate impact from climate change is ongoing. Surrey’s climate change specialists work with highway maintenance leads to undertake climate change risk assessments and develop improved processes and policies.
Within Highways and Transport we have a working group that considers opportunities to trial develop new innovations, maintaining a register of trials to capture and share learnings.
Electric vehicles and plant are used in many highway maintenance operations where suitable, and consideration is always given to use of EVs where suitable when replacing vehicles or initiating new activities. Warm mix asphalts are now laid as the preferred default material during summer season.
Examples of low carbon treatments being trialled include:
- Recofoam is cold recycled bound material which demonstrates carbon savings. Our long-term ambition is to set up a recycling facility in one of our depots.
- A trial which is being conducted to replace 5% of the aggregate in lower road layer construction with a carbon negative aggregate. Carbon-negative aggregate (ACLA) has an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) demonstrating -798KgCO2 per tonne so by adding 5% this would make the material carbon neutral.
- We are also trailing an acrylic lining material which is a cold applied material therefore providing a carbon saving over thermoplastic, it is a long-lasting product with better performance in terms of longevity providing carbon savings over the life.
A carbon impact assessment has been undertaken to identify the carbon cost of each activity and focus resource on activities that have the highest carbon impact. Winter service (particularly road salting) was identified as one of the highest carbon impacts. This has resulted in trials of options for better focussing treatment decisions using Route Based Forecasts, the consideration of these options continues.
In addition, Surreys Lane Renal Surplus income has been utilised both by Surrey County Council and others to trial and implement low carbon solutions both in terms of materials and operational processes which reduce congestion and therefore limit the carbon impacts of works. Information about projects funded through our lane rental scheme can be found at; Surrey Lane Rental Scheme (SLRS) - Surrey County Council.
Additional information on plans
Further information from Surrey’s web pages can be found as follows:
- Highways Safety Inspections and Network Hierarchy
- The Highway Prioritisation Policy and Criteria
- Highway Asset Strategy
- The public can access maps informing them of Surrey’s highway maintenance investment programme (Horizon Programme)
- And all permitted works within Surrey from any promoter using the One Network map: