17 Apr 2023
OK so we may be taking liberties with our version of the line from The Beatles’ classic A Day in the Life, but few people – especially motorists and cyclists – can fail to have noticed the sorry state of disrepair that currently blights the district’s roads.
We’re used to the odd pothole following the winter, but this year seems to be particularly bad, with crumbling craters visible in numerous roads across the district.
Potholes are generally caused by the expansion and contraction of water under the road surface during periods of freezing temperatures – in just one winter the roads might freeze between 40-50 times, with damage caused on each occasion, leaving the surface fragmented by the onset of spring.
The sheer number of potholes this year – some hard to see or avoid until it’s too late – have taken their toll on motorists’ vehicles, with social media pages full of accounts of damage caused to cars and bikes.
You have only to stand in front of the new Jubilee Square development to see first hand some of the worst potholing the city centre has ever known.
St Albans district council leader, and county councillor Chris White, said: “It is quite remarkable knocking on doors. We keep a note of what comes up, and it swirls around various things, but the one absolute constant is potholes. I’ve never known anything like it. Everyone’s got a terrible pothole, Victoria Street bridge for instance on my patch, anywhere you care to go.
“But when you go to places like Griffiths Way you see that the private sector has also got pothole problems.
“There is some more government money coming and I’m hopeful that will make a difference. My negativity towards HCC is that they’re just not responsive in terms of danger. I had a massive row over one pothole on Sopwell Lane, next to a lovely listed building, May Cottage, which was on the side of the road and invisible at night. It was spraying gravel against this listed building and they had to put up a tarpaulin to stop it breaking their windows. I had to escalate this right to the top and said ‘if you only do one pothole in my entire division can you please do this one?’!
“There is this problem with works. There’s a bit of ‘computer says no’ and that’s really frustrating. They’ve got to sort that out. A pothole in the middle of the road which isn’t very deep and is really just surface wear is not the same as one which will kill a cyclist, and HCC don’t seem to be able to distinguish between them on their system.”
The highways department of Herts county council is responsible for the maintenance of 3,200 miles of roads, and says in an average year it carries out more than 1,500 maintenance and improvement schemes as well as fixing more than 21,000 potholes.
HCC prioritises repairs based on whether the fault is a safety hazard, the type of road, budget availability and any upcoming work they have planned in the same area, but aims to fix most potholes within five to 20 days.
A spokesperson said: “Wherever possible we prefer to prevent potholes forming in the first place by treating roads that are starting to deteriorate.
“Over recent years the general condition of the county’s roads has improved significantly as a result of extra investment in a resurfacing programme targeting local residential roads.
“However, it is not possible to keep all roads in perfect condition all the time and potholes will therefore form on our roads, especially during wet and/or cold weather.
“In line with good practice, we operate a risk-based approach to dealing with potentially hazardous potholes on our roads.
“We aim to make the most significant ones safe within 24 hours but the majority of potholes that are big enough to need rapid attention receive a first-time permanent repair either within five days or within 20 days, depending on factors like the size of the pothole and how busy the road is. Smaller, less urgent, potholes are repaired as part of planned road resurfacing.
“We encourage road users to report potholes, or any other defect, to us online at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/highwayfaults
“This ensures that they are in our system and, even if we can’t repair them immediately, we can use the information to help us plan our maintenance programmes.”
