Road safety, surface treatments and line markings specialist, WJ Group, has responded to the announcement of £1.6bn in road maintenance funding for local authorities by calling for the funds to be allocated to long-term maintenance activities that maximise road safety and value for money.
While the funding is not ringfenced for pothole repair, the Department for Transport (DfT) announcement of the allocations to individual local authorities came in a press release with the headline “7m more potholes to be filled next year as public urged to report roads in need of repair.” The announcement adds that “The government is also making sure authorities spend the money wisely, collect the right data and deliver proactive maintenance before potholes start to form.”
Wayne Johnston, Founder and CEO at WJ Group, said: “The government is right to be taking the problem of potholes on our road network seriously. However, this should be delivered alongside other safety-critical maintenance activities, including inadequate skid resistance, line markings and ITS solutions.”
He added: “The crucial point is that roads funding needs to go as far as possible to deliver works that enhance road safety and reduce risks to road users. New technologies and ways of working are critical here, enabling crews to be more productive and deliver greater value to the taxpayer at the same time.”
An example of WJ Group’s efforts to boost efficiency and road safety is in pothole solutions that allow it to repair surface defects whilst refreshing the road markings using high quality solutions that will prevent the reemergence of potholes. As a trusted partner of the highways authorities it works with, WJ Group will fix potholes it encounters wherever it is working, reducing the need for the authority to divert budget towards identifying potholes in need of repair and streamlining the workflows.
A DfT transparency data release issued the same day as the funding launch carries a different emphasis from the press announcement, stating: “DfT strongly advocates a risk-based whole life cycle asset management approach to local authority highways maintenance programs. This considers all parts of the highway network, such as bridges, cycleways and lighting columns – not just the fixing of potholes.”
Wayne Johnston added: “This is the sort of pragmatic, data-led approach that will ultimately deliver value to road users through safety improvements and easier journeys thanks to a reduced need for reactive maintenance. It also offers a promising avenue for maximising the impact of constrained local authority budgets.”
A recent report published by WJ Group Making Vision Zero a Reality highlights the scale of the challenge facing local authorities when it comes to improving road safety, prompted by a recent plateauing of the UK’s killed and seriously injured (KSI) rate in recent years. Amongst the report’s recommendations are the need to extend the use of maintainability audits and whole-life approaches to asset management, and to strengthen the ties between these and road safety. In particular, the report advocates for the adoption of the PAS 1261 standard for road condition monitoring to improve safety.
“Road maintenance has a crucial role to play in improving the safety of road users,” said Wayne Johnston. “Road maintenance funding should be geared towards enhancing safety – a goal that would benefit from a holistic approach that includes the effective prevention and repair of potholes but is not confined to it.”
WJ Group’s report, Making Vision Zero a Reality is available to download here: https://www.wj.uk/make-vision-zero-reality/.