Do You Have a Road That Needs Repairs?

17 March 2021
 Categories: Construction & Contractors, Blog

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Do you have maintenance responsibility for a road? Even if a road has been recently laid, it is never too soon to start thinking about setting up a road maintenance regime. It can be surprising how quickly even the best-laid road surface soon begins to show signs of wear. The toll taken on the road surface by a stream of trucks passing over it means that even if the road only runs to your company, it will soon require resurfacing or need to have potholes filled in. If you fail to complete road maintenance, you could have a road that isn't safe for pedestrians or other road users.

What types of road maintenance should you consider?

You might think that road maintenance is only about filling in potholes before they get too large, but there is more to it than it. Potholes can be a problem, but you could also have problems with drainage, or the entire surface could even require replacement. Whatever type of maintenance is needed, the biggest problem that most people face is the need to close the road while the work is done.

The value of scheduling preventative work

Closing the road for emergency repairs at a busy time will inconvenience many people, so it is best to institute a program of preventative maintenance that can be completed when the road is quiet. Preventative maintenance might involve patching potholes when they start to appear, but it must also include unblocking the drains and repairing the road gullies to prevent the road foundations from becoming waterlogged. If there are any manhole covers, grids or similar features on the road surface, you must make checking them a part of your preventative road maintenance so you can be sure that they remain in good condition.  

The need for reactive road maintenance

Regular preventative road maintenance should be able to identify most problems before they develop into serious issues; however, there will always be times when something is either missed or cannot be predicted. Perhaps an accident will damage the road surface or an unexpected storm will cause the drains to become clogged. When the unexpected happens, your road maintenance team must be able to react quickly so that the road does not remain in an unsafe condition. They should ensure that the road is repaired with minimal disruption.

Talk to your local road maintenance company to discover how they could help keep your roads in the best possible condition.