Road repairs accelerated as lockdown cuts traffic
ROCHDALE Borough Council is taking advantage of reduced road traffic during lockdown to drive through major road repairs across the borough, as its £12m highways improvement programme continues.
Sections of more than 930 roads have been repaired in the Rochdale town, Heywood, Middleton and Pennines areas since the council boosted the road budget by £12m in April 2018, with a selection of treatments, including resurfacing and surface dressing, being applied across the borough.
Engineers are continuing their work completing tasks like resurfacing roads, with around 30 more roads set to be targeted before the completion of this element of the programme, which is part of the council’s pledge to make the borough’s highways the best in Greater Manchester.
The council receives £1.5m a year from government to help fund highways work, but the council decided to boost this by £12m to drive up standards across the network. Footpaths have also been targeted as part of the programme.
The council also has an additional fund for reactive repairs, which covers things like potholes.
Council Leader, Allen Brett, said: “We’ve already spent more than £11m of the £12m pot to make massive improvements across our highways network, as this is a major quality of life issue for our residents.
“We’re now pressing ahead with the final stages of this particular programme, in line with government advice which encourages us to get this done while the roads are quieter.
“We’re ensuring that our contractors are socially distancing while they work and our public health team has risk assessed all their work plans. The £12m programme is set to be complete by the end of summer.”
Residents in roads set to be improved will all receive letters in advance and signs will be posted on lampposts.
Motorists in these areas are required to move their cars to enable the work to take place. If they are not able to do this because they are socially isolating, the council will return at a later date to undertake the work.
More details of which roads will be improved and when as part of the £12m programme are available on www.rochdale.gov.uk/ roadrepairs.