Cheshire East Council has admitted there are issues on a number of roads with the work carried out to prevent water from getting in.
Routine inspections revealed a problem with surface dressing works completed last year along the A34 Maclean Way/ Birrell Way in Wilmslow, the A500 Shavington Bypass, the A49 Whitchurch Road, the A54 Buxton Road, and the A533 London Road/ Middlewich Road in Sandbach.
Councillor Mark Goldsmith, chair of Cheshire East Council's highways and transport committee, said: "The treatment carried out on these roads, which is used widely by councils across the country, helps to seal the road and prevent water from getting in.
"Over the past few years, almost 609,000 sqm of this treatment has been laid in Cheshire East and we have not experienced issues like this in the borough before. Of this, just under 26,000 sqm has been affected by these issues (around 11 per cent of the 231,000 sqm delivered last year).
"In most cases, including with the A500, only a section of the road is affected and not the full length of where works were carried out.
The Council is working with the contractor responsible for the works to understand the cause and an investigation is being carried out.
Councillor Mark Goldsmith added "There are no safety concerns with the roads, but we of course want to ensure the works are up to the standards we expect from a treatment of this type and are planning to carry out further improvement works when the weather is more suitable. We currently expect this to be during May.
"These works will be carried out at no extra cost to the council.
We apologise for any inconvenience or concern caused and would like to reassure our residents that we are committed to managing the impact of these works and ensuring our roads are safe.
"Since being made aware of the issues, we have been carrying out regular monitoring and inspection of each road, along with regular sweeping to remove any excess chippings from the road."
Comments
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The same applies for the potholes in every road around here. Temporary fillings/surfacings are a waste of money.
It was made worse by incompetent, wasteful council leadership. But the lessons learnt will be zero. They’ll do the same again on other roads and in other projects. Waste yet more money, blame everyone else and try and get their customers to pay more.
Rinse and repeat.
This work was all conducted by the same specialist contractor who has 40 years of experience doing it in the UK and internationally. They provide a fully integrated service where they both produce and lay the surface coatings.
The process requires a fleet of large specialist vehicles that can cost £10,000 just to get onto site. It needs warm weather and a steady stream of dumper trucks that continuously feed stone chips into the machines (which is why the road has to be closed). Councils hire the team for a few weeks to resurface large areas of their road network before the operation moves onto the next council.
Last year Cheshire East installed 231,000 sqm of this coating and just under 26,000 sqm has failed (around 11 per cent). At the contractors cost, an independent expert has been commissioned to see what went wrong and the initial findings indicate the bitumen coating delivered to site was faulty.
This work is guaranteed though and having an integrated supplier means there is only one company responsible. They are treating it very seriously and are paying for all costs associated with this issue and its repair.
Unfortunately, the remedial work cannot be undertaken until the weather warms up so is likely to happen around April / May. In the meantime, the A34 is being inspected each week and swept if necessary. A reduced speed limit is also in place.
Therefore, our apologies for this but the disruption should only continue for a few more months.
Mark
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow
"Over the past few years, almost 609,000 sqm of this treatment has been laid across Cheshire East without issue"
All I can say is "You need to get out more"
No (ahem) stuff Sherlock.
Coupled with that, the appalling condition of most roads in the area has cyclists dodging potholes, ruts and broken drains and running into the path of ever more aggressive and frustrated drivers.
The decision to levy charges at the car park next to The Freemasons Arms in Handforth is a classic example of CECs lack of joined-up thinking. Drivers now park along the length of Manchester Road - on the Bicycle Lane, right at the place that a cyclist was killed last year.
Good result Cheshire East.
It's more likely to be cumulative damage to tyres and suspension from bouncing through a million potholes which leaves can and van owners paying the bill, not the council and not road repair "professionals" (tm)