Major Concerns Raised Over State of UK Roads

A dire warning has been issued over the state of the roads in the UK, with some projected to be rendered unusable in as little as five years thanks to severe potholes.

The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), the body whose members provide the majority of materials needed to fill potholes, believes that the problem can only be tackled effectively in England and Wales if the Government was able to put £1.5billion into pothole fixing each year for the next ten years.

Speaking to the Daily Express, AIA chairman Rick Green laid out how serious the issue is becoming: “We published a number of metrics in our report that looks at things like the structural life that’s left in it and there are something like 40,000 miles of road in the UK that have only got five years of life left in them.”

The warning comes as councils are paying out increasing amounts of compensation to road users for accidents involving potholes. In the five-year period between 2013 and 2018, Plymouth City Council alone paid out an average of £4,634 to cyclists who were injured due to pothole-related incidents, and an average of £377 to motorists.

While pothole damage is often seen as an inconvenience for motorists, causing damage to vehicles that can be costly to fix, they pose a real danger to the lives of more vulnerable road users, such as cyclists. In fact, nationally cyclists are receiving 26 times more in compensation for pothole-related incidents than motorists.

Earlier this month, the family of a triathlete from Warwickshire, was awarded damages of around £400,000 after she was killed as the result of hitting a pothole.

The pothole, which had been identified by contractors as a category 2 defect in 2015 and should have been repaired within 28 days, threw Kate Vanloo off her bike and into the path of a car, causing fatal injuries.

Cycling UK CEO, Paul Tuohy, said: “Cyclists are running the gauntlet when riding on British roads following a decade of underinvestment leading to the poor state they’re currently in.

“Potholes aren’t just an expensive nuisance, they are ruining lives.”

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