Extra money for road repairs is making a difference in Oxfordshire
Earlier this year Oxfordshire County Council made two announcements which are helping to make a big difference to the county’s roads.
Double the money for road repairs
In July the county council put an extra £10m into the road repair budget effectively doubling the amount spent on fixing and resurfacing important routes around Oxfordshire.
This has already resulted in £1.6m worth of surface dressing resulting in around 33km of roads being surfaced. Work is also under way with a £700,000 batch of ‘micro-asphalt’ surfacing projects around the county.
Work has just started on a £300,000 initiative to resurface the eastbound slip road off the A40 at Marston and, next week, Kennington Road will be resurfaced at a cost of £830,000. Both of these schemes are being funded with the extra £10m and more projects which will see well-used roads repaired are on the way.
Small fixes - big improvements
But fixing the roads is not just about large resurfacing schemes. While they are needed and are very popular with anyone who lives on or travels along the road in question, there’s also lots of small pieces of work happening every day that make a big difference to the travelling public.
In recent weeks our road repair team have been working right across Oxfordshire fixing roads in Henley, Didcot, Banbury, Chalgrove, Marston, Kidlington, Wantage, Chipping Norton, Kingston Bagpuize to name but a few locations. You can read about how these relatively small pieces of work make a big difference here.
Since the start of this year the county council has fixed more than 33,000 defects - that's potholes, damaged signs, blocked drains and other problems on its roads. The high number illustrates the impact last winter has had on the roads.
Our local teams have also completed resurfacing projects in the form of minor and structural patching worth over £3.9m and minor improvements such as bollard installation, mending fences, installing dropped kerbs for crossings worth more than £500,000.
Big schemes already completed
In addition to the additional work being done with the extra £10m there’s another seven projects that the county council had already planned to work on over summer.
Denchworth Road in Grove has had £237,000 spent on repairs to the kerbs and complete resurfacing between Elizabeth Drive and the Mill Street roundabout – a distance of just under 700m.
A total of £245,000 has been spent carrying out resurfacing, lining and rebuilding a raised crossing by the school on Wootton Road in Abingdon. The team resurfaced from the school to the junctions with Bath Street and Faringdon Road – a distance of around 550m and a total area of 3500m2.
Marlborough Street in Faringdon has had £135,000 spent on repairs to surface, drains and replacing road lines between Station Road and Gloucester Street – a distance of 230m.
High Street in Wallingford has been resurfaced from the cross-roads to Goldsmith’s Lane - a distance of 290m and area of 1560m2, other work here includes kerb and ironwork repairs and replacement of road markings. The cost here was £180,000.
Park Street in Thame has been resurfaced from East Street to Chinnor Road - a distance of 200m and area of 2075m2. Other work here includes kerb and ironwork repairs and footway resurfacing, all at a cost of £132,240.
Bridal Path in Woodcote has been resurfaced from Goring Road to Whitehouse Road - a distance of 500m and area of 2730m2. Other repairs here include ironwork repairs and replacement of road markings. The cost here was £105,200.
Horton Hill in Horton-cum-Studley has been resurfaced from Mill Road to the Brill Road/Oakley Road junction - a distance of 700m and area of 3415m2. Other work here included kerb, footway and ironworks repairs, drainage improvements and replacement of road markings. The cost was £247,820.