A ‘surface dressing’ programme of around £3 million to help protect Leicestershire’s roads is well underway.
With nearly 9,000 potholes fixed in 2024, the summer gives Leicestershire County Council’s highways teams a chance to continue their work protecting the road network.
As part of their annual summer maintenance programme, this preventative work is being carried out on nearly 770,000 sq m of road - the equivalent area of nearly 100 football pitches.
It involves applying a layer of bitumen followed by stone chippings, which are then embedded into the bitumen with rollers, helping to seal the road and extend its lifespan.
Councillor Charles Whitford, cabinet member for highways, transport and waste, said: By taking action now, our highways teams can repair road surfaces, helping to prevent more difficult and expensive repairs later.
“We’re always thinking ahead when it comes to roads and by carrying out surface dressing every summer, we stand to increase the lifespan of our roads by up to ten years.
“We thank our hard-working teams for making these necessary repairs every summer but also sincerely appreciate the patience of local residents, as we carry out important work in their area.”
Surface dressing helps minimise potholes, keeps roads waterproof, increases resilience to adverse weather, improves road safety and reduces fuel consumption for motorists.
The programme is carefully planned across various key routes and designed to keep disruption to a minimum.
Once it has been completed, the council’s team will start work on making roads safe for the harsh, colder months, such as gritting and monitoring road temperatures.
Leicestershire County Council’s YouTube channel has a step-by-step video of the surface dressing process.
For more info, visit our surface dressing page.
Fact file on surface dressing
- The surface dressing process involves a moving ‘train’ of maintenance vehicles, where a tanker sprays bitumen binder on a clean, dry road surface, then stone chippings are spread from a chipper following behind.
- After a second spread of chippings from another lorry, a rolling machine embeds the stones into the bitumen. While some loose stones can remain on the road surface for about a week, council sweepers are deployed to keep roads clear in the meantime.
- Around 11,500 tonnes of stones will be used by the council’s teams as they carry out this work across the county, which relies on warmer, drier weather to ensure effective combining of materials.