£11 million to repair potholes in Essex

£11 million pounds could be invested in repairing potholes in Essex. Proposals are being decided on today and if they get the go ahead work could start later this month.

While over 50,000 potholes were fixed across Essex in 2011/12, extreme weather conditions including heavy snowfall in the winter, followed by a hot dry spring and then by severe flooding, have caused damage to the county's roads and increased the need for repairs. More than 50-thousand potholes have been already repaired across the county in the last year.

The first phase of the programme will start this month and will target the number of outstanding defects waiting for repair across Essex. The second phase of work will start in November 2012 and will focus on strengthening the road network to ensure that fewer potholes occur in the longer term.

In addition to this proposed investment, Essex County Council will also start work on its annual surface dressing programme. This is a 10-week programme that will see surface dressing carried out on 1.6 million square metres of road across the county. This year's programme is a third larger than last year's.