Myth Busters – Road Maintenance

Myth: “Local Councils are responsible for maintaining the roads.”

Reality: Essex Highways is responsible for maintaining the majority of the road network in Essex on behalf of Essex County Council, not city, borough or district councils. However, there are some roads and routes we do not maintain:

• The A12, A120 (between the M11 junction and Parkeston roundabout in Harwich), M11 and M25 are the responsibility of National Highways.
• The A130 between the A12 (Chelmsford) and A1245 (Fairglen Interchange) is the responsibility of CountyRoute.
• Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock are unitary authorities. This means that the roads in these areas are the responsibility of the local councils.
• Private (unadopted) roads are the responsibility of the residents or landowners of those roads.

Myth: “Make safe repairs are pointless, why can’t crews fix a pothole first time round.”

Reality: An inspector will carry out an assessment of a pothole once it’s been reported. If the pothole is classed as being high risk, a crew will be notified and will be on site to carry out a temporary repair, or ‘make safe’ within the timeframes specified on our website, which can be quick as two hours of the inspector filing their report.

We carry out ‘make safes’ on the most dangerous potholes because they are the quickest way to make the road safe to use again and avoids disruption to traffic. In comparison, a full repair requires booking a permit to close the road, ordering traffic management, and getting together all the equipment and hot asphalt which takes time and would delay us in being able to quickly make the road safe to use. A ‘make safe’ repair involves using cold asphalt to quickly fill in the defect and tamp it down to make it safe for a temporary period. This can be done without closing a road and with minimum disruption to traffic.

For other issues on a road or footpath, we will use a temporary ‘make safe’ such as putting cones, barriers and signs on a site to warn drivers and other road users – for instance if there is a missing gulley or manhole cover.

Once a “make-safe” repair is undertaken, we will continue to assess it and if needed, and depending on the nature and size of the risk, and where budgets permit, a more permanent repair will be planned and scheduled for a future date.  

Due to our limited resources, we must prioritise our work and fix the higher-risk issues first.

For more info, check out our ‘What is a make safe’ video.

Myth: “The roads seem to be in a bad condition in the winter, why can’t Essex Highways be more proactive in fixing the damaged cause by the bad weather.”

Reality: Essex Highways workers who carry out the maintenance works (such as repairing potholes and clearing out the drains etc) are the same teams who drive the gritter trucks in Essex during the winter. When weather conditions are cold, gritter teams can be sent out twice a day to grit the roads across the county. This means that these individuals are not available to carry out as many maintenance and repairs jobs.

The cold and wet weather that we experience during winter months does in fact increase the rate that potholes and other defects appear on the roads and pavements. This is because when it rains the water enters any small gaps or cracks on the surface. When that water freezes in the cold weather it expands and causes the road surfaces to crumble. When a defect is reported to us, we send an inspector out. The defect is then recorded on our risk register and given a risk factor score as described on our website. Due to our limited resources, we must prioritise our work and fix the higher-risk issues first.

It is important to note that some works, such as larger scale resurfacing works and surface dressing can only be carried out in dry and warmer conditions. This means that these jobs are scheduled for the summer months.