More than 53,000 potholes repaired in past two years

Find and fix pothole repairs being carried out near Adcote

Shropshire Council has repaired more than 53,000 potholes in just under two years, latest figures show.

In total, 53,251 potholes have been tackled since April 2021 – an average of more than 540 every week – with more being repaired every day.

As part of efforts to improve the county’s roads, crews from Shropshire Council and its contractor Kier are out across the county every week tackling potholes in a variety of ways.

Enhanced patching work is carried out across Shropshire using the Multihog road planer which treats larger areas of potholes, reduces the likelihood of potholes forming in the short-to-medium term and cuts down on the need for road closures.

And two Roadmaster vehicles carry out spray injection patching on rural roads in the spring and summer. Roadmasters use compressed air to blow water or dirt out of a pothole that needs repairing and then fill it with hot bitumen and chippings. The repair is compacted by a roller and sealed with a layer of surface dressing – meaning a better quality of repair.

A Roadmaster in action near the village of Mardu, south Shropshire

More traditional repairs by gangs are also carried out, and under Shropshire Council’s ‘find and fix’ service, six gangs operate across the county, identifying or responding to defects on the county’s U and C roads, and fixing them permanently.

Meanwhile, 45 stretches of road across Shropshire were resurfaced last year as part of the council’s annual resurfacing programme, and 159 roads were surface dressed – work that will help to prevent potholes forming in future.

A further 66 roads are set to be surface dressed between May and July this year – see here – and the list of roads to be resurfaced in 2023 will be published shortly.

Richard Marshall, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways, said:

“These figures are really encouraging, and provide further evidence of the work we’re carrying out every day to improve the county’s roads, and the progress that we’re making.

“Hitting and exceeding the 50,000 potholes figure is a significant achievement, but there are still many more to be tackled and that’s what we’ll do.

“A significant amount of work has been done to improve the condition of the county’s roads over the past 12 months. We have seen much greater levels of investment, which has seen more kilometres of road resurfaced and repaired than in previous years.

“The wet and cold winter weather conditions means that – right across the country – more potholes appear at this time of year – and I’m sure people will have spotted more defects on the roads in recent weeks. But, we’re working hard to tackle these.”

“I want to say a big thank you to all the staff from Shropshire Council and from our partners Kier and WSP for all their continued hard work – it really is making a difference.”

Ian McLellan, general manager with Kier Highways, said:

“Repairing over 50,000 potholes within two years is an outstanding achievement, which is a testament to the hard work of our teams and supply chain partners.

“At times, it has been challenging. Every day, our people are on the roads – in all weather conditions – carrying out essential repairs to keep people safe. We’ve used a combination of methods to tackle potholes and provide a quality service with minimal disruption. By working closely with Shropshire Council, I’m sure that the speed and strength of our delivery will have had a positive community impact across the region – and will continue to do so.”