First phase of major Oxfordshire highway maintenance finishes on time
The county council has started repainting road markings across Oxfordshire after completing the first phase of a £7.4 million surface dressing programme that treated over 930,000 square metres of road
The next stage of a major road maintenance programme in Oxfordshire has started, with crews repainting lines and installing reflective studs on roads across the county.
The first phase of the £7.4 million surface dressing programme was completed on 15 June after beginning in April. Around 70 towns and villages were treated, covering 938,336 square metres of carriageway.
Councillor Andrew Gant, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport Management, said: “We were very lucky with the weather this spring and early summer. Surface dressing is extremely weather dependent, and we only had to rearrange a handful of shifts due to rain.
“We are grateful for the cooperation of road users during this time and ask them to be patient during the repainting process too. I hope they are noticing the improved quality of many of these roads.”
The road marking work began earlier this month and is expected to be finished by mid-July. This stage can only start about four weeks after the surface dressing is applied.
The second phase of surface dressing is planned for 30 August to 8 September. This will treat additional carriageway, bringing the total to over one million square metres. The later timing follows requests to avoid disruption at two key locations during the main phase.
Richard Lovewell, Business Director of M Group, the contractor delivering the work, said: “We’re very pleased to be supporting Oxfordshire County Council to deliver another widescale surface dressing programme.
“A programme of this scale and complexity requires exemplary collaboration across all partners from the council to our sub-contractors Hazell and Jefferies and Wilson and Scott. Thanks to all involved, especially the teams who have been working in sometimes gruelling heat to get the programme completed to schedule in order to minimise disruption to the public.”
Surface dressing is a cost-effective way to maintain roads. It extends their service life by eight to 10 years on average by sealing the surface to prevent water damage, a major cause of potholes.
The process involves applying a bituminous emulsion as a binder, followed immediately by a layer of chippings to dress the surface.
Updated details and a map showing the work schedule are available on the Oxfordshire County Council website.