Highways Maintenance and Resurfacing Information

The initial long list of roads to be considered for treatment is obtained from the structural condition survey reports from the Highway Asset Management System as well as feedback and defect levels recorded from the Council’s Highways Safety Inspections. The structural condition survey reports provide the structural road condition indices, or initial average score and a borough-wide condition survey was completed in quarter two of the 2023-24 financial year. The Council takes the condition of roads and analyses them through a value engineering matrix to ascertain the priority of roads.

The 2023-24 year included an extensive programme of resurfacing and minor capital intervention works to extend the life of the carriageway. Redbridge Council has put forward further capital investment to its roads and has also received funding from the Department for Transport funding from HS2.

The levels of funding for the last five financial years and the 2024/25 financial year are as follows for reactive maintenance to fix potholes, raised paving slabs, damaged signs, bollards and responding to road traffic accidents, as well as the capital investment to resurfacing roads:

Financial Year	Reactive Maintenance (£)	Road Resurfacing Capital (£)
2019/20	£1.45m	£2.5m
2020/21	£1.47m	£6.75m
2021/22	£1.65m	£2.5m
2022/23	£1.52m	£1.5m
2023/24	£1.6m	£2.5m
2024/25	£1.5m	£3m
2025/26	£2.1m	£3m

Funded by UK Government

In both 2023/24 and in 2024/25, The London Borough of Redbridge has been allocated £262,000 to invest in road maintenance. The Council also received £853,000 from the Government to be spent on road repairs.

 

Innovation

Injection Patcher

Redbridge Council piloted a Jet Injection Patcher over the 2023 summer period that resulted in the additional repair of 2,202 potholes which proved to be cost effective and reduced carbon output due to not having to excavate and dispose of any material. The Council used the jet patcher again throughout Spring and Summer 2024 year using additional revenue funding provided by the Council to repair an additional 3,018 potholes.

Warm Mix Asphalt

Redbridge is also using warm mix asphalt as per its standard resurfacing material which reduces the Council's carbon emissions as part of its road maintenance programme to comply with its wider goals on carbon reduction and net zero.

AI Surveys

Redbridge is also working with various organisations that are looking to use AI on the road network to detect potholes and report them through to the maintenance teams to ensure potholes can be picked up and repaired at a faster rate. Redbridge have also commissioned Vaisala Road AI system to conduct annual condition surveys of the roads which feeds into the priority matrix of road resurfacing. This ensures that the Council is spending and investing in its road network appropriately and at the right time.

Low Carbon Resurfacing Materials

Redbridge is the first borough in London to trial a unique, new asphalt mix that can significantly reduce the carbon footprint in road resurfacing works. The trailblazing project led by Redbridge Council, in partnership with Kensons Highways, utilised the revolutionary asphalt for road resurfacing works at Lodge Hill, in Ilford. The asphalt mix, supplied by Tarmac, significantly lowered the carbon footprint from the road resurfacing process by incorporating a carbon negative product into the mix, called ACLA^®. Results showed that using ACLA^®, Tarmac’s asphalt had reduced the project’s carbon footprint by 68%, which is equivalent to an average UK car driving 17,400 miles, or a round trip to Los Angeles for two people.

Read more about this here.

Protecting Resurfaced Roads

The London Borough of Redbridge will issue Section 58 notices under the New Roads and Street Works Act (NRSWA) 1991. The notice prevents any statutory undertakers from digging up the carriageway for a minimum of two years to protect the resurfacing the Council has completed. However, statutory undertakers such as utilities can still excavate in the need of an emergency, but they must satisfy the conditions of the Council when doing so.

Redbridge also has regular meetings with all utility companies and its own teams to ensure that roadworks are coordinated in an effective manner under the Traffic Management Act, New Roads and Street Works Act as well as the London Permit Scheme. Where possible, Redbridge urges collaboration between works to reduce disruption on the road network.