Council to spend £100m on road repairs and improvements in Northumberland
Almost £100m is set to be spent improving and repairing Northumberland’s road network over the next three years.
The plan, which covers a three year period for the first time, includes a spend of £38m over the next 12 months and an additional £32m for the next two years after that.
The spend on the county’s 3,000 mile-plus road network will form part of the new local transport plan.
Cllr Mark Mather, portfolio holder for highways, said: “Our highways network is valued at over £5.5 billion – it is the largest asset that the council is responsible for.
“Ensuring we have a safe, reliable highway network is fundamental to the economic success and social well-being of the county. We want to ensure it is managed effectively and efficiently.
“This is the first local transport plan to cover a three-year period. This new strategic approach will deliver a range of benefits, allowing more effective programming of works and improving operational performance.”
The coming year’s programme will see over £28m spent on roads, £4m spent on repairing landslips and improving bridges and other structures, as well as almost £2.5m on new safety schemes and £1.9m on maintenance of footways, cycleways and the public rights of way network.
Cllr Mather added: “We’re spending more than ever on our road network as it’s an absolute priority for us and residents. The three-year-programme has been developed following a comprehensive review of road safety issues, potential improvement schemes and future maintenance costs.
“We’ve also worked closely with our county and town and parish councillors to understand local priorities, as well as considering requests and issues raised by the public, which are then all assessed against a range of technical criteria, to develop a programme which benefits all areas of Northumberland.
“We’ve over 3,000 miles of roads, many of which are subject to hugely changeable weather conditions and very exposed to the elements. That’s why we’re investing so heavily in this area. Our roads are in better condition but we need to keep this trend going.”
Council leader Glen Sanderson added: “I’m really pleased we’re bringing all of this money into our roads. Let’s hope we don’t get any more foul weather.”