Roads need investment
Spelling out cash requirements
The condition of our roads has improved, according to South Lanarkshire Council.
But the cash-strapped local authority would still need to stump up £125million to bring all of their 1426-mile network up to serviceable standard.
On top of that, nearly £44m will be required to bring the region’s street lighting up to date and £13.4m to replace the out-of-date traffic lights system.
Councillors on a community resource committee were last week given an update on the roads asset management plan.
Officers told members the Road Condition Index (RMI) of the 1426 miles of carriageway had dropped from 38 per cent in 2010/11 to 33.45 per cent last year.
The RMI is calculated by placing 10 metre sections of roads into three categories – requires maintenance, should be considered for maintenance or serviceable.
The cost of bringing the roads up to serviceable standard has been downgraded from £137m which was estimated in 2013.
A report to councillors read: “Carriageway asset is an improving condition as a result of the significant additional investment.
“Inventory of carriageway asset is good in terms of length of carriageway, however, additional investment will be required beyond 2019 if this progress is to be maintained and recent improvements protected.”
The council would also need £44million to bring the region’s street lighting up to date.
Over 40 per cent of lighting columns across the region have exceeded their design life, and nearly half are over 40 years-old, making it the second-oldest stock in Scotland.
The cost of replacing these columns comes in at £43.9m.
In March this year, members of an executive committee agreed £19.56m investment to convert existing lights to light-emitting diodes (LED).
Further investment has been agreed to replace over 7000 of the oldest columns, bringing the percentage of columns over 40 years old from 48.3 per cent to 28 per cent.
During the first year of the programme, the council has installed over 31,000 LEDS and over 2500 lighting columns.
The meeting also heard around 1000 complaints about traffic lights about the 212 installations the council are responsible for are received each year.
The report reads: “Many of the traffic signals in South Lanarkshire are old, utilise older computer technology and are energy inefficient.”
Officers also stated the replacement programme was not sufficient to upgrade the number of installations over 15 years old.
Road assets also include footpaths and structures such as bridges or culverts.