Oxfordshire,
25
October
2018
|
06:00
Europe/London

In all types of weather our crews are out repairing Oxfordshire’s roads

Earlier this year the county council put an extra £10m into fixing your roads – effectively doubling the amount of money invested in repairs – and crews are out and about every day in all types of weather doing the job.

Their work has already resulted in £1.6m worth of surface dressing with around 33km of roads being surfaced. Work is also under way on a £700,000 programme of surfacing sealing projects around the county.

There’s also been a £300,000 initiative to resurface the eastbound slip road off the A40 at Marston and work is well underway on Kennington Road, which is being resurfaced at a cost of £830,000.

More repairs big and small

As well as the extra cash which is going into some larger projects, the county council has also increased the amount of relatively small-scale work it does to put right local roads that are suffering from potholes, cracks and worn out tarmac.

There’s six crews who work in the north and south areas of Oxfordshire, spending their days using specialist equipment to cut out affected areas, resurface and seal the repairs.

Early start for man and machine

The day starts at 7am when part of the crew arrive at the highways depot and load up the equipment and material for the day while their colleagues will be out on site preparing the road by ‘planing off’ the surface.

There’s two main machines that are used on the smaller sites - Bobcats and Multihogs. Both are quite small vehicles, but their size belies their versatility which means that one driver can make short work of potholed and cracked surfaces.

Each team can deal with between 50-100m2 a day. Once the hog or cat have done their bit the excavated area is swept a special glue, otherwise known as a ‘tack-coat’ – a thin layer that helps the main road surface to stick properly and provide years of smooth running.

Finally the bitumen surface is laid, rolled flat to take any air pockets out and the edges sealed. Job done… now on to the next location.

Thriving economy

Owen Jenkins, Oxfordshire County Council’s director for infrastructure operations, said: “Our teams are out working hard to make the necessary improvements to our roads throughout the county, the scale of work being undertaken is now starting to make a noticeable difference. We want to improve the stand of our roads and make it better for Oxfordshire residents and business, and we have a considerable amount of further work planned.”

You help us get a picture of road condition

The reports that you make on Fix My Street and the information gathered by our road inspectors all guide the work of the team by building up a picture of the condition of the local roads and highlighting where and how resources can be used to best effect.

Hotspots on the highway are first visited by a council inspector or technician and a supervisor from our contractors.

They look closely at the areas where the data shows problems in order to decide what type of work will bring the best result.