Biggest road resurfacing scheme underway

A £5.5m road surface dressing scheme has started across Lincolnshire covering 177 miles - the distance from Lincoln to Cardiff. 

It’s the biggest programme of work undertaken by Lincolnshire County Council’s Highways Department and will be carried out at over 251 different sites with the addition of 25,000 tonnes of material to surfacing.

The scheme got underway in mid-June and should be completed during the first half of August, weather permitting. 

Surface dressing is a cost-effective and pre-emptive way to improve the condition of roads. It’s also quick to do and is designed to add another ten years to the life of a road surface.  

Small stone chips are put down on the road and compressed into a sticky bitumen underlayer making damaged roads better to drive on. It will also help to level the roads and, once the stones are bedded in, is virtually identical to other road surface types.

Surface dressing also extends the life of a road’s condition and round 9,000 tonnes of recycled stone chips from the last round of works will be put back into the summer scheme to keep costs down. 

Cllr Michael Cheyne, executive member for highways, said: “This massive surfacing scheme is a very practical way of getting more life out of a road for less cost when compared to having to rip a road apart and then rebuild it and it costs around a tenth of what the more conventional methods do. 

“It’s less disruptive for road users too. We don’t always need a short-term road closure to get the work done and crews can lay around 50,000 square metres of new surface a day which is the roughly the same as 75 tennis courts.”

Resurfacing scheme fact check
• Road studs moved prior to the works (where applicable)
• Residents in the area will receive a leaflet in advance of the works
• All ironwork will be masked (this includes gullies, manhole covers, etc)
• Surface dressing happens – which includes a layer of. bitumen followed by one or two layers of aggregate which is then compacted down to be level and pushed into place.
• All sites are protected by a 20mph advisory speed limit (it’s important that we all stick to this while it’s needed – helps the dressing sit better on the layer underneath)
• Sweeping will begin between 24-48 hours later with a second sweep 7-10 days after that to remove the loose chips. Later in the year a further sweep (this happens after 13 weeks) will happen followed by a winter sweep
• Road markings and road studs will be reinstalled within 28 days of completion

Top picture shows the laying stone chips onto a sticky bitumen layer.

Below - the new surface is almost complete once levelled and when loose stones are swept away the road can be used again almost straight away.

Pictures: Lincolnshire County Council