County surface dressing to get underway soon
Warwickshire County Council is about to start its annual surface dressing programme of roads across the county.
Gangs will start work on the 6th May in the Stratford and Warwick areas before moving to the north of the county.
The £2 million programme involves more than 380 sites and includes all categories of road from ‘A’ roads to residential cul-de-sacs. The programme is due to be completed by September.
John Grant, Warwickshire County Council’s Activity Manager, said: “Drivers should keep their speed at 10mph or less through areas being treated with surface dressing. We advise this speed to help keep our workers safe and to minimise the hazard of flying chippings picked up by tyres.”
Carillion the council’s highway maintenance contractor is carrying out the work. Residents whose roads are being treated will be notified by letter to help ensure roads are cleared of vehicles to allow the work to be carried out as quickly as possible.
John Grant added: “These works are excellent in extending the life of our roads in an extremely cost effective way. In fact this year we are looking at a new washing and recycling system of the chips which could save even more money, as well as being environmentally friendly.
“This means the 1,600 tonnes will not be needed to be brought into the county thus reducing noise and dust associated with quarrying and transportation as well as giving savings of over £15,000.”
Andrew Denman, Contract Manager with Carillion, said: "Carillion work closely with the county council to ensure that we minimise disruption to the public as far as possible. This does require public assistance by ensuring obstacles such as parked vehicles are moved in advance of our works, so that our teams can move as quickly and efficiently through an area before giving the carriageway back to the users. We ask that the public support us during the works."
After the initial surface dressing operation and first vacuum-sweep of loose chippings, the roads are swept at seven days and six-week intervals to ensure safety of all road users. Typically 10% of chippings are swept up over the six-week period and recycled for more surface dressing work on other less busy rural roads to ensure no materials are wasted.
To find out more about when and where work will take place please visit: http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/surfacedressing.