In recognition of the deteriorating condition of Highland roads, The Highland Council is to invest £2 million on repairing damage caused by snow and ice over the past two winters. The Council is to receive £1.645 million as its share of the £15 million allocated to Scottish councils for road repairs by the Scottish Government and a further £355,000 has been allocated to road repairs in 2011/12.
In addition, the TECS Committee has agreed to bring forward £500,000 of capital funding for structural road maintenance to the current financial year to help with repairs to the local road network.
Councillor John Laing, Chairman of the Council's Transport Environmental and Community Services Committee, said: "We are acutely aware of the concern about the condition of our roads, which have had to withstand two winters with extremely low temperatures resulting in widespread frost damage. This is why the Council is committing £2 million to urgent maintenance of our roads. We will get the programme under way just as soon as we get a break in the weather."
Richard Guest, Head of Roads and Community Works, said that emergency patching would be carried out during any short breaks in the weather so that potentially dangerous holes are filled as soon as possible. Permanent patching or resurfacing would take place in any longer breaks in the weather and continue through the spring and summer.
He said: "Potholes may be dealt with individually in response to a public complaint or because they are found during a routine safety inspection but most of them are dealt with by "find and fix" squads who go out with the necessary materials and work their way through all the roads in an area, filling potholes as they find them."
More extensive repairs, he said, are prioritised by experienced engineering staff in each area. They collect data from the routine inspections - from reports by Councillors and members of the public and from the annual Road Maintenance Condition Survey which is done by a specialist vehicle using laser scanners and cameras and covers all main roads and a sample of lower class ones annually.