The bill for bringing Renfrewshire's roads up to scratch is set to keep rising over the next five years, even though the roads themselves are expected to get better.
A new council roads plan puts today's estimated carriageway maintenance backlog at £43.46 million and forecasts it will reach around £51 million by 2031. The report says that's down to higher costs for materials, labour and construction, rather than the network getting worse.
Roads in better shape
In fact, the condition figures are heading the right way. The share of roads rated green is expected to rise from 72.5% this year to 80% by 2031. Roads in the amber category are forecast to fall from 23.9% to 17.4%, and the worst, red-rated stretches from 3.6% to 2.6%.
The council currently spends about £7 million a year on carriageway maintenance and renewal, as part of its ten-year, £90 million roads investment programme. That includes the £30m resurfacing deal signed earlier this month.
The cost of standing still
The amount needed every year just to keep the network in a steady condition is forecast to grow from £6.26 million to £7.26 million by 2031. Spending is above that level now, but by 2031 the requirement would slightly overtake current investment.
The plan also looks at what more money could do. Spending around £10 million to £12 million a year could get roughly 90% of roads into the green category within five years.
Councillors on the Infrastructure, Land and Environment Policy Board will be asked on Wednesday 4 November to approve the Roads Asset Management Policy and Plan, along with an updated roads and footways inspection policy. That refresh doesn't change the existing priority categories for defects or the response times for fixing them. The same meeting will also consider the phased plan for 20mph limits, with Paisley first.
Image: Roadworks on Storie Street, Paisley. Photo: Thomas Nugent, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (geograph.org.uk 5495963).