Potholes continue to cause despair and anger for motorists up and down the land, with these menaces costing British car owners £4bn in repair bills annually.
Such is the gravity of people wishing to see the back of them, the government announced a £2.5bn fund to tackle the issue during the latest Budget, whilst councils have been using the lockdown period to ramp up their pothole filling activities, with a magnitude of success.
Demonstrating the importance of pothole filling, Roadmender Asphalt, a Sheffield-based bitumen technology company has commissioned nationally representative research that explores the British sentiments towards fixing our potholes.
The Department for Transport has announced that cycling will play a significant role in how Government envision the future of commuting.
The study has shown that 65% of Wales’ motorists would rather cycle or drive in to work now than take public transport due to the COVID-19 risk, compared to the national average of 69%.
In light of a new influx of road users each morning, hoping to avoid public transport, it is more important than ever that councils expand on their brilliant work they do to ensure potholes and road defects are addressed quickly, maintaining safety on the roads.
Furthermore, the research revealed that 24% of Welsh tax payers in the study said that they would be happy for their council tax bill to increase by 10% in order to provide the financial assistance local authorities need to continue maintaining local road networks.
The study has highlighted that 35% of Welsh commuters have cited that driving is the most stressful part of their day due to the quality of roads. Further financial injections to assist the respective councils will therefore help a great deal to entice commuters to use the road networks in light of Coronavirus and beyond.
To aid the provision of pothole repairs in the UK, Roadmender Asphalt, has recently come up with a novel approach to pothole repairs designed around a new material specifically designed for the job. Elastomac, as the innovation is known, is a novel repair material, made from predominantly recycled materials, that include seven end of life tyres recycled into every tonne.
Harry Pearl, CEO of Roadmender Asphalt, offers insight into the state of road repairs in the UK in 2020 and said, “Experienced by councils up and down the land, the problem with pothole repairs is they are carried out using a process built around materials designed for building roads rather than fixing them.
“As a result the process is more costly, inefficient and ineffective than it needs to be, rather like playing squash with a tennis racquet. You can do it but it’s far from ideal.
After a decade of austerity, councils have naturally gravitated towards innovation and have helped launch R&D hubs, working with innovative SMEs . Together, SMEs and councils have started to ask why are pothole repairs filled with the same materials made to build roads, when they can fill potholes with materials made specifically for the job, that may prove to be significantly more efficient and cost-effective.”
