Council blitz to tackle city’s worst potholes ahead of major repair programme

A two-week blitz to permanently repair some of Plymouth’s worst potholes has just got under way, ahead of a major road patching and resurfacing programme for the city.

Now that the worst of the winter weather appears to be over, extra resources have been brought in by Plymouth City Council and its highways contractor Amey, dedicated to making permanent repairs to potholes causing residents and drivers the most concern.

Eight pothole gangs have been deployed for the blitz, which will focus on repairing ‘category one’ potholes (those more than 40mm deep) that have been reported by the public.

Amey has been making around 120 permanent repairs and 90 temporary repairs a week on average but with better weather conditions and extra teams on the ground, it is making a dedicated push to complete as many permanent repairs as possible – ahead of a citywide programme of patching and resurfacing on roads that have been the most severely damaged over the winter.

Councillor Mark Coker, Cabinet Member for Transport said: “Potholes are a big concern for the city, which is why we have worked so hard to make additional resources available for road repairs despite significant cuts to our highways maintenance funding. We recently pledged to invest an extra £2 million a year over the next decade and will be spending a total of £5.1 million on road maintenance this year alone.

“We’re just finalising our programme of patching and resurfacing for this year, which is where we repair whole roads or large sections of road. This will be carried out during the school summer holiday, when there is less morning and evening rush hour traffic. In the meantime, we’re making permanent repairs to the worst individual potholes and road defects that have been reported by the public, to bring about a quick but tangible improvement for Plymouth road users.”

Victoria Hutchins, Watchman-in-Chief for Amey said: “The extra resources allocated by the Council have enabled us to install a ‘hotbox’ at our depot, which is making a big difference to the way we carry out repairs. The hotbox is a large heated storage unit that keeps asphalt hot after it is delivered so it can be used on demand by our pothole and patching gangs. In most cases we can now make a permanent repair first time, instead of temporarily filling the pothole and having to schedule in a permanent repair later. This means higher quality and longer lasting repairs – and better value for money.”

The two-week pothole blitz will finish on Friday 7 June. Details of the road patching and resurfacing programme, which is due to start in July, will be announced in a few weeks.

The quickest and most direct way to report potholes and road defects is to email plymouth.watchman@amey.co.uk, call 01752 668000 or fill in the reporting form on the Council's website at www.plymouth.gov.uk/potholes.