Rural roads ramp up – latest figures show real improvement

LCC’s plans to get the most rural roads working again are delivering results.

There’s been a boost to the county’s rural roads network. A massive 57 miles of Lincolnshire’s most rural roads have been lifted out of the ‘needing maintenance’ category.

Particularly difficult to work on due to their narrow width and ditches either side, these roads are known as ‘unclassified’ because they have usually developed from old farm tracks – instead of being specifically built, more mainstream routes like A, B and C roads.

Because of their organic development, unclassified roads tend to be more prone to potholes and edging issues as the historic softer underpinnings give way to modern, heavy farm traffic.

As part of its ongoing county-wide roads strategy to continuously better the traffic network, LCC Highways has ramped up the focus on unclassified roads, and the latest figures show a big improvement for the lesser roads.

Cllr Richard Davies, executive member for Highways said: “These latest figures are very encouraging and underline that our strategy for roads across the whole of the county is really working.

“Accelerating the improvement on the Unclassified Road network has been a major part of our plans, and we can now show that our efforts are making real headway.

“These lesser roads are usually difficult to work on because the underpinning is just earth and old farm tracks piled on top of each other for, sometimes, hundreds of years before a top layer was eventually added.

“The roads are susceptible to movement, they are narrow, need to be kept open for farm access, and can have the thin surface material torn off by very heavy vehicles going about their rightful business.

“All of those factors can make working on them tricky, but we are committed to doing that difficult work for everyone across the county.

“We have seen a 2.3% improvement in the Unclassified Road network in the last year alone, which means 57 miles of the most rural roads are now not needing maintenance.

“We know we have more to do, and we are working extremely hard to continue the improvement. We’re seeing real change and that is set to continue.”

By the numbers:

• For the percentage of main roads ‘where maintenance should be considered’ Lincolnshire was joint second best in the UK. Just 2% of the county’s roads were in need of maintenance compared to areas like: Cumbria (4%), Norfolk (4%), Warwickshire (4%) and Worcestershire (5%).
• For the percentage of non-Principal roads ‘where maintenance should be considered’ Lincolnshire was mid-table with 6% of the total road number, equal to Norfolk and less than: Cambridgeshire (7%), North Lincolnshire (8%) and Cumbria (10%).
• For the percentage of Unclassified roads ‘where maintenance should be considered’ Lincolnshire was mid-table with 28% compared to North Yorkshire with 20%, Suffolk with 23% and Cambridgeshire with 33%.