I have today highlighted the huge job facing the City Council with potholes in road and re-lining works exacerbated by the recent adverse winter weather conditions and described the £15 million funding from Scottish Government that has to cover all 32 councils the length and breadth of Scotland as “totally inadequate for the job.”
I have been in correspondence with the City Engineer over the extent of the work already undertaken and still required. He has advised :
"Fraser
The repair of potholes across Dundee has been ongoing throughout December i.e. repairing potholes that are identified through the online system, specific calls through customer service, identification by council officers etc. The repairs that have been carried out are of a temporary nature to make safe and may have to be revisited on a number of occasions until permanent repairs can be carried out.
Following the end of the winter period, we have temporarily increased the number of pothole repair teams from 3 to 8 and they have been working across the city repairing defects on a find and fix basis. Starting on Monday 17/1/11, they have been travelling the winter gritting priority routes of which there are 13No, a length of approximately 320km, any actionable defects found at the time have been repaired there and then. Following completion of the priority routes last Friday, the 8 teams moved on to the back up routes and these should be completed by Friday 28/1/11.
Although they will have been around the entire 550km of adopted network by this Friday, I am in no doubt that on some of these routes further actionable defects will appear which will require repairs and some which have already been repaired will require further attendance. From Monday 31/1/11 we will revert back to 3 teams (unless more are required) and the defects will be treated back in line with the policy of Cat 1, 2 & 3 repairs ie actionable defects will be repaired within 3 hours, 3 days or 28 days as appropriate.
For your information, from Monday 17/1/10 to Tuesday 25/1/11 there have been approximately 2900 potholes filled across the city.
For your information, from Monday 17/1/10 to Tuesday 25/1/11 there have been approximately 2900 potholes filled across the city.
With reference to white line marking we have a monthly allowance set aside which usually is sufficient to deal with white lining maintenance issues however we have been unable to carry out white lining for a couple months and there has been a deterioration in condition. We will now be applying a priority approach for repairs and that will be to deal with priority safety issues i.e. junction markings that have completely disappeared. The extent to which lining has deteriorated has still has to be fully reviewed however we will action those priority safety issues as soon as practicable. The backlog of lining previously identified will be actioned when the weather is suitable.
The management of the yellow lining across the city is the responsibility of the parking team and there is an on going programme for Tayside Contracts to refresh yellow lining as directed, as far as I’m able to ascertain the two references in your e-mail* are not contained within the current work package with Tayside Contracts so I have copied in appropriate officers into this. Similar to all other line marking, this programme has been severely affected by the weather.
Given that, in the week from 17th January alone, nearly 3000 potholes had to be filled across Dundee, there is a very significant cost involved especially where the road condition is so poor that resurfacing is the only option. I am very concerned that the City Council has been left footing the bill for this and I have asked the City Engineer to quantify the likely costs.
The response from the SNP Scottish Government seems to be wholly lacking and it is important that the council lobbies government for the proper level of funding required to tackle this matter.
The management of the yellow lining across the city is the responsibility of the parking team and there is an on going programme for Tayside Contracts to refresh yellow lining as directed, as far as I’m able to ascertain the two references in your e-mail* are not contained within the current work package with Tayside Contracts so I have copied in appropriate officers into this. Similar to all other line marking, this programme has been severely affected by the weather.
Road marking is very weather susceptible and to be effective can only be placed on dry roads. Therefore minimal road marking will be carried out until the weather improves as it will be necessary to physically dry the road prior to placing the road markings."
Given that, in the week from 17th January alone, nearly 3000 potholes had to be filled across Dundee, there is a very significant cost involved especially where the road condition is so poor that resurfacing is the only option. I am very concerned that the City Council has been left footing the bill for this and I have asked the City Engineer to quantify the likely costs.
The response from the SNP Scottish Government seems to be wholly lacking and it is important that the council lobbies government for the proper level of funding required to tackle this matter.