EARLY reports indicate the recent flooding has caused at least £2m of damage to the county’s roads. Wiltshire Council is investing an extra £250,000, in addition to the £52m increase in road spending announced in November 2013, to repair potholes before forecast colder weather sets in.
Four teams of two-person pothole hit-squads are filling the worst of the damage caused or made worse by the heavy rainfall of the last few weeks.
Armed with supplies of water-based road repair material, which can be used even where potholes are still full of water, the teams from the council’s highways maintenance contractor Balfour Beatty Living Places are targeting damage that can be repaired quickly without the need to close roads.
Information on potholes that need filling comes from members of the public, via the MyWiltshire app, social media, email and phone calls to the council on 0300 456 0105, as well as internally from the council’s area teams around the county.
John Thomson, cabinet member for highways, said: “The prolonged period of heavy rain and flooding has clearly damaged our road network – estimated at up to £2m. The risk is that figure will increase rapidly and significantly if a cold spell causes the water still in the potholes to freeze.
“We are using the window of opportunity now that the worst of the flooding is abating to redeploy some of those teams to filling potholes.”
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