Birmingham named in top three: 'Roadwork capitals of the UK'

Broad Street, Birmingham Credit: Birmingham City Council

Birmingham has been named in the top three 'Roadwork Capitals of the UK'.

According to recent figures, Birmingham City had over 79,000 roadworks in the last two years, and that's enough to put the second city, in third place.

In first place was Herefordshire with 105,614. Sheffield came second with 84,587.

Unlike those in first and second place, Birmingham's roadworks have actually decreased over the last two years, with 48,490 in 2019/20, compared to 31,048 in 2020/21.

Birmingham Roadworks, 12.11.21 Credit: one.network

Meanwhile, Nottingham was at the other end of the scale, coming in 5th place on the 'least amount of roadworks' scale with just 268 - a decrease of 82% since the previous figures. If you want to avoid roadworks altogether, you're best off in Midlothian on the border of Edinburgh.

The organisation behind the study, MoneyBarn, estimate that "motorists lose 28 hours a year due to being stuck in traffic" - hence, the frustration.

On their website, Birmingham City Council say "Lots of people travel to and in Birmingham city centre every day. We need to improve public transport to make it easy for people to get around and to reduce reliance on private cars, which cause unnecessary congestion and air pollution."

Today, the council have confirmed there are currently 3394 cases of roadworks across the Birmingham Highway Network.

In a statement, the council said "We are not surprised with this figure because we are the largest local authority in the country so it is inevitable that we would be in the top tier because we have more facilities to manage and this is not a per capita figure."

Paradise Circus closed to all traffic Credit: Birmingham City Council

There are many projects currently underway in the city, designed to move towards a more eco-friendly future by improving public transport services. These include the tram works on Broad Street, HS2 work and the Clean Air Zone.

But the council say "The works are predominantly minor public utility operations and planned utility maintenance.  Because we are the largest local authority in the UK this is to be expected."