Covid delays road repairs
Council took a ‘pragmatic approach’
Resurfacing work on South Lanarkshire’s roads fell as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Last year, just 3.2 per cent of the road network in the region was resurfaced by the council – down from 3.4 per cent in 2019-20.
Engineering manager Colin Park said that they “took a pragmatic approach” during lockdown and focussed “on safety defects” during the UK-wide coronavirus lockdown.
On Tuesday, August 17, the council’s performance and review scrutiny forum heard that the four per cent target had been halved as a result of the pandemic as the roads department was unable to work during the first quarter of the financial year.
Clydesdale East councillor Alex Allison was concerned about the longterm effects of resurfacing such a low percentage of the road network.
He said: “Just a comment on the percentage of the road network resurfaced – a marginal decline which I think needs to be highlighted.
“I don’t think I’m suggesting it’s anything to worry about at the moment, dropping from 3.4 per cent to 3.2 per cent, but when you are only repairing three per cent of your road each year, it means a lot of it is going to be in a pretty poor state by the time you get to it.
“I noticed that we reduced the target. I don’t remember doing that.”
Mr Park said: “We were looking to surface about four per cent of the road network. When Covid kicked in, we took a pragmatic approach.
“Bearing in mind that the first threequarters
South Lanarkshire of the year is when we make the biggest progress in relation to projects on the ground, we lost the first quarter entirely.
“Non-essential construction activities were being discouraged and we were just really focussing on safety defects.
“That is when it was reduced from four per cent to two per cent.
“Thankfully, as Covid progressed and we became more aware of how we could work safely, we were able to increase the two per cent and 3.2 per cent of our network was surfaced.
“It is important to highlight though that the amount of network surface doesn’t always translate into an improvement in the network entirely.
“I think overall, given what we had last year, it wasn’t a normal year so to deliver comparable figures to what we did in 2019-20, I am relatively comfortable with that.
“There is a lot needing done still and we need to have that sustained investment moving forward.”
Larkhall councillor Peter Craig wondered why more of an effort hadn’t been made during the various lockdowns as it would have reduced disruption with the roads being quieter.
He said: “The roads have been pretty quiet over the last couple of years now.
“That would’ve been an ideal time, with minimum disruption to get the roads network work done.
“Precisely, what was it within the Covid restrictions that stopped us from doing that?”
Mr Park added: “The first quarter of the year we were told to stop all nonessential construction activities.
“Our focus was essentially on safety defects so that was responding to bridge strikes and major defects on the road.
“At the same time though, our ability to actually do work on the ground, even some of the essential activity, was limited by the number of people in vehicles.
“At that time we didn’t have safe systems of work, we didn’t have PPE, things like masks and hand sanitiser. Those things were very much an evolving picture.
“As restrictions eased, PPE became available, additional vehicles were hired and safe systems of work were developed and we were able to ramp up the programme again.
“It was a very challenging time for all of us but we did improve as we all became a bit more comfortable working with Covid.
“The important thing wasn’t, as far as I am concerned, delivering projects on the ground. It was the safety of our workforce and our communities.”