Hampshire will get its share of £100million to spend on the ‘colossal’ task of improving the county’s roads.
Operation Restore and Resillience has been by the county council launched as part of a long-term investment to improve the strength and condition of Hampshire’s road network. Last winter’s arctic blast wreaked havoc on the county’s streets and highways, with potholes littering roads and causing misery for many.
The crackdown will begin in 2011 but an initial £12.5million coming into effect this month. Hampshire county council’s Highways Maintenance Contractor, Amey, will keep up the pace with pothole repairs.
County council leader Ken Thornber commented: “The task before us is colossal and not one that can be resolved overnight which is why we recognise that we must develop a strategy that will ensure our roads can withstand the rigours of bad weather and cope with the volumes of traffic regularly seen on our network.
“Hampshire’s share of the £100million for roads announced by Alistair Darling of £2.3million is welcome but is not nearly enough to do what is needed. We also recognise that our own plans to find additional funding to improve our roads’ resilience will not result in totally flaw free roads but we believe our strategy to strengthen roads will go a long way to reducing the prevalence and frequency of potholes and similar defects over the coming years.”
And Cllr Mel Kendal, Executive Member for Environment, added: “The first stage of our plans – Operation Restore – will involve spending around £12million to get our roads back in the short term to the state they were in before the poor summer and winter of 2009.”
Improving the condition of Hampshire’s roads is one of eight key issues highlighted as being important by the county’s residents.
Operation Restore and Resilience will contribute to meeting this target, according to the council.
