The 2022 survey, polling 3,102 drivers, revealed that 58% of drivers believe local roads have become worse in the past year, an increase of 2% from last year’s statistics and up from 52% in 2020.

In contrast, a mere 4% think local roads have improved in the past 12 months, down from 6% over the previous two years.

The most common complaint, raised by 98% of respondents, was related to road surface quality and potholes. More than half (55%) of respondents rated the standard of pothole repairs in their area as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.

An additional 63% said they’d noticed fading road markings, up from 56% in 2021’s survey. Another 42% of drivers reported poor signage visibility while a further 35% grumbled about roadside litter. 

Nearly half of UK drivers (45%) ranked local road conditions as their top motoring concern, although more people (55%) were worried about rising fuel costs.

Commenting on the survey, Nicholas Lyes, RAC’s head of roads policy said: ‘“Many [drivers] describe the repair work – when it’s carried out – as being substandard, which more than likely means potholes and surface defects will quickly reappear, costing yet more money to fix.

“This seems to be utter madness and an issue that badly needs addressing if drivers’ views are indeed accurate. Unfortunately, we do still have a widespread funding shortfall meaning that many councils can’t afford to maintain and improve roads as they would like to.”

Cllr David Renard, the transport spokesperson for the Local Government Association, attributed the cost of living crisis to the poor condition of UK roads. He made the case that the organisation’s latest estimates show that the average cost of a pothole repair has increased by 25%, with the cost of running street lights nearly doubling.

He said: “Research shows that, even before current levels of inflation, existing levels of funding will lead to a gradual decline in road conditions.

“The Government should meet these increased costs in the upcoming Autumn Statement; otherwise they risk the current pothole repair backlog growing even longer and councils being forced to cut back on essential road repairs.”

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National Highways (previously Highways England) collaborated with Roadcare and Kier on a two-year, £685,000, international competition with the purpose of investigating new road marking products. 

The competition aimed to identify the most successful marking and removal technologies using three key stages: high-speed turntable testing, on-road testing, and removal trials. 

For removals, limited innovation was identified in testing. The current prevailing method, water-pressure blasting, was still found to be the most effective technique. 

Good-removal results, however, are limited to unpredictable variables – underlying surface quality, time, and individual operative skill. Improper removals can raise serious safety issues – leaving behind ghost markings and causing surface damage to roads. 

Test results for road marking technology identified significant developments to wet surface retroreflectivity. It was revealed wet night-time retroreflectivity could be increased to 50 millicandelas (mcd) from the current minimum standard of 35mcd.  

National Highways is likely to make some changes as the competition showed that despite the wide variety of marking technology, the same materials are often used. This universal approach ignores better value solutions, wet/dry weather variables and doesn’t take into account whether the markings are permanent, temporary, heavy or lightly trafficked. 

Stu McInroy, CEO of the Road Safety Markings Association (RSMA), is concerned with the methodology employed by the study. McInroy disputes the on-road positioning of the products during testing and implores that the report fails to reflect correct surface textures and vehicle speeds. He concludes that to make policy changes based on this study would be “irrational”. 

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An eight-year contract has been laid out, which will begin in July 2022. Colas will take the reins on the important tasks of routine maintenance, repairing defects and responding to emergency incidents. Navigating severe weather services will also fall under their remit.

Andrew Jinks, regional operations director for the Midlands at National Highways, said “By working more closely with our supply chain partners on routine maintenance, repairs and incident response, we’re able to work more effectively, identifying innovative ways of working and provide the best possible quality of service to road users.

“We’re delighted that Colas has been awarded this contract and look forward to working with them, driving improvement and strengthening our regional expertise.” 

Colas Ltd is a UK-based company that provides civil engineering solutions. It is taking over at the end of the three-year contract currently with Kier. Area 9 contains over 2000 miles of motorway and trunk roads, making this a huge opportunity for the business. 

CEO of Colas Ltd, Carl Fergusson, said: “Everyone at Colas is delighted that we are continuing to build on our successful relationship with National Highways with this new, significant, contract award.

“We are looking forward to establishing a highly effective collaborative working relationship in Area 9 with National Highways and our supply chain partners as part of the contract, and in working towards the common goal of reducing carbon emissions to achieve net-zero.”

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Despite the addition of 120 gritters to this year’s roads, the driver crisis may prevent them from being used to their full potential over the winter months. The caution comes from the Local Government Association (LGA), which is the national body for the UK’s local authorities.

In recent months, some councils have had difficulty keeping waste collection services running due to the current shortage of HGV drivers. Councillor David Renard, transport spokesperson for the LGA commented on the impact this could have on gritters:

“While most councils have been able to keep services running, some may find that their gritting services are affected in the same way that some have seen waste collection services impacted. As they do every year, councils will be working proactively to plan ahead and ensure that their winter services are as resilient as they can be.”

The LGA has commented that the training of new drivers offers the best long term solution to the problem, ensuring local councils can replenish their staff as necessary in future. Until this happens, the issue of driver shortages is likely to prove a challenge over the winter.

“Fast inflating HGV driver salaries in the private sector risks exacerbating issues in the public sector, with the rises potentially creating a retention as well as a recruitment problem for councils and their contractors.

“We want to work with (the) Government to address these short term staffing issues to ensure people across the country can continue to receive the services they rely upon.”

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The total fleet number will reach 252 vehicles next year after another additional 132 are added as part of a two-year rollout. The gritters meet Euro 6 regulations, ensuring that they have the best current environmental standards for heavy-duty Cl diesel engines. 

With speeds of up to 50mph, the new vehicles are around 10mph faster than previous models, allowing a more efficient approach to road gritting. This year’s vehicles will be delivered to areas of the South and the Midlands.

Duncan Smith, National Highways’ acting executive director of operations, said: “The new vehicles are an impressive sight and this year’s rollout once again demonstrates our commitment to keeping drivers safe throughout the winter months […]

“We want everyone to travel safely on our roads and ask that drivers take extra care near gritters, leave a safe distance, overtake gritters carefully when it is safe to do so and at a reduced speed.

“When the wintry weather arrives our winter teams across the country will be ready to work around the clock to keep traffic moving.”

Including these new vehicles, National Highways now has 535 gritters available for use on our roads. Operating these are 1,300 specially trained gritter drivers. Over 280,000 tonnes of salt is also in storage, ready to be used. 

With all of these measures in place, the government-owned company aims to keep roads as efficient as possible this winter. For more news on travel conditions and the latest road safety news, be sure to keep up to date with the Anglo Liners blog. Alternatively, click here for a free quote.

From September, students will be able to go into the game and explore three proposed national road schemes: the proposed Lower Thames Crossing, A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvements and the A303 past Stonehenge.

The government-owned company hopes that the educational package will help the next generation understand the skills needed for such projects, as well as the potential career paths. 

It’s expected that the game will inspire more students to aim for a career in one of the many jobs within transport infrastructure. These include archaeology, biology, ecology, civil engineering, communications technology and coding.

There are five games, as well as a creative mode that teachers can use in their lessons with key stage 2 and key stage 3 classes. They can practise virtual activities such as tunnelling, excavation, responding to environmental factors and learning about biodiversity near Stonehenge.

Natalie Jones, National Highways talent delivery lead, said: “We want to inspire the next generation of talented engineers and scientists, on whom the country’s infrastructure and national economy will one day depend.

“With the help of Minecraft and the in-game activities, students will get first-hand experience of what would go into building a huge bridge or digging a giant tunnel. In real life, these are multi-million-pound structures that are carefully designed and then built by experts.”

Schools simply need access to Microsoft Education Centre to access the package.

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The government-owned company aims to ensure that motorists have the clearest possible directions while driving, in order to keep all road users as safe as possible.

Faded road markings can cause issues by confusing drivers who are following them. If the layout of the road changes, but previous markings are still visible, this can lead to accidents. Old lines can often be more visible in bright sunshine.

The current process of removing ghost markings can also damage the road surface, resulting in further necessary repairs and a higher backlog of work to be done.

Launched in conjunction with Roadcare and Kier, the £685,000 competition hopes to find an industry-leading solution to this problem within the global sector.

Highways England’s Innovation Director Paul Doney, said: “We were delighted with the response from existing suppliers and beyond, with some competitors even developing bespoke products. We are confident we will have some sustainable solutions to the challenges faced on road markings at the moment.”

The competition was financed through the £150m ring-fenced funds that Highways England offered for innovation projects. Real-life testing on motorways will be carried out until May 2021, when the final results will be analysed and shared within the industry. 

Highways England’s Chief Engineer, Mike Wilson, said: “By developing and using new and improved products and ways of working across the industry, lanes will be more distinct in roadworks and finished schemes will have clearer markings. All this will mean safer and better journeys for drivers.

‘Less damage to the road also means fewer potholes and less need for repairs that impact upon people’s journeys.”

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The government-owned company has said this is its ‘biggest ever motorway safety campaign’, and is one part of their 18-point action plan. The main message is that drivers should ‘go left’ if they encounter an issue with their vehicle, and will be broadcast across TV, radio, social media and digital channels.

If road users cannot exit the motorway, they are encouraged to move into an emergency area, onto the hard shoulder, into services, the left-hand verge or an A-road lay-by and switch on their hazard warning lights.

The advert was launched shortly after the Department for Transport (DfT) promised a targeted campaign on the subject. Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, said: “With regard to an information campaign so that people understand how to use all motorways, not just smart motorways, that £5m campaign was one of the calls of the stocktake.”

Acting Chief Executive of Highways England, Nick Harris, also stated: “This campaign is just one of the many steps we are taking to invest in our network with safety as our number one priority, doing everything we can to help drivers feel confident on our motorways.”

Some have criticised the campaign for not being specific enough to smart motorways. Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, Jim McMahon, said: “It reduces it down to an insult, insinuating that drivers who became stranded were somehow careless. They were not. They were the victims of an ill-conceived scheme, which is still leaving people at risk today.”

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This comes a year and a half after the law initially changed in order to allow camera evidence to be used for prosecutions.

Since not all of the Hadecs 3 cameras are completely operational, it has been reported that in some cases, the government-owned company is still sending warning letters to drivers who are in violation of lane closures.

Highways England has stated that the ‘phased national roll-out programme’ of the enforcement cameras (expected to be completed by July 2023) has been delayed due to COVID-19, meaning that some systems have been unable to be tested and the technology upgraded.

The lack of ability to catch motorists who do break the rules is causing concern among some groups, at a time when smart motorways are already under fire for safety concerns.

AA President, Edmund King, said: “One premise of smart motorways is that the technology is meant to make them safer. Having red X technology without widespread enforcement may undermine the effectiveness of the whole system.

‘Most drivers will still abide by the red X but a minority of drivers, if they believe they will get away with it, will continue to put other drivers at risk by ignoring the warning. Widespread enforcement is needed as soon as possible or more lives will be put at risk, as 38% of breakdowns on smart motorways happen in live lanes”.

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The Historical Railways Estate (HRE), which comprises around 3,200 structures, is managed by Highways England on behalf of the Department for Transport. The HRE Group state that the Government-owned company plan to demolish up to 480 of these between now and 2030.

Campaigners are arguing that around one-third of these have already been proposed for reuse in the future. These plans involve new rail routes, cycle paths, extensions of current heritage lines, and other similar projects.

Highways England has stated that many of the legacy rail bridges have failed structural assessments. However, the group has since gathered evidence from a Freedom of Information Act which suggests that 48 percent have not failed and that many of the sites (21 percent) are fit for purpose.

Chris Todd, Director of Transport Action Network, said: “Across the country, new cycle routes are needed, yet a handful of officials within the Department for Transport and Highways England are taking a wrecking ball to structures that could be vital in providing better access to our countryside.

“Our great railway heritage should not be viewed as a liability and it has to be asked whether Highways England is really the right body to be managing these important assets.”

Alongside the petition, MPs are also lobbying the Department for Transport, in order to get the message across to both them and Highways England.

A spokesperson for Highways England, said: “To maintain the safety of communities living near to, and the vehicles using Historic Railway Estate structures, we are planning to infill 115 bridges. We are acting to keep people safe from actual risks identified by experienced engineers who have had the benefit of inspecting the structures.”

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