Extra £2.5m funding for highway drainage and rural roads

Devon’s road network is to benefit from an extra £2.5 million of funding.

Devon County Council’s Cabinet announced on Friday (10 February) plans to invest an additional £2 million in rural roads, and an extra £500,000 for highway drainage in 2017/18.

Devon has continued to maintain 97% of A and B roads in good condition, and the additional investment will be used to improve road surfaces on lower category roads across the county.

The additional funding will be used for patching and longer term repairs to add life and resilience to roads.

Councillor Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Highway Management, said: “I welcome this additional funding for rural roads and highway drainage. It’s good news for people living in rural communities and will go some way towards addressing some of the problems on our rural network. The funding for drainage improvements will target areas where water is on the highway, which damages the surface. This will help protect our infrastructure by preventing water getting into the roads.”

Devon’s road network needs around £55 million of capital investment every year to maintain its current condition. However, the authority faces an annual shortfall.

Around only £23 million of the £38 million allocation it received from the Department for Transport this financial year is available to spend on roads as the funding also has to pay for maintenance of streetlighting, traffic signals, bridge repairs, drainage, safety barriers and public rights of way among other work.