Roads in Fife are set to improve and measures are in place to carry out work on a backlog of surface repairs according to the local authority.
Fife Council has confirmed maintenance will be carried out to bring routes up to scratch as work to rectify the damage of last year’s winter weather remains unfinished.
The quality of the region’s road network has deteriorated markedly in the past four years according to the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey, which shows the number of roads in Fife in need of repair exceeded the national average.
The data, compiled by the Scottish Government, suggests 37.3% of Fife’s A roads and 38.2% of B routes require maintenance in comparison to the national averages of 29.6% and 34.9%.
A report published by the RAC this week found that 10 out of 11 rural councils had failed to complete road repairs from last winter.
However, while admitting the standard of surfacing has been severely affected by inclement weather in recent years, Fife Council says it is working on road improvements while claiming survey methods have given an unfair images of the region’s roads. George Miezitis, roads services team leader, said, “Across Scotland 2008-10 roads condition survey results show a marked deterioration for each of the road classes and the network as a whole.
“However, it is thought that the process for determining the unclassified roads figure has had an undue negative effect on the overall network figure for Fife, with 40.6% of our roads being categorised as either red or amber.
“As reported to Fife Council’s environment, enterprise and transportation committee on October 7, analysis of the cost to eliminate all carriageway defects across Scotland has produced a figure of £1.5 billion, with the Fife figure being £68.9 million.
“To maintain roads in their current condition in Fife requires around £8.8 million per year.
“Since the implementation of the safeguarding our infrastructure roads 10-year programme last year, Fife is now in a position not only to tackle the long-term backlog of road repairs, but also to see some improvement in Fife’s roads condition index (RCI) that is, how we compare against other councils in Scotland.
Mr Miezitis argued that two successive winters of particularly severe weather were to blame for surface defects, but that additional funding had been put in place to tackle this.
However he argued further research will have to be done should the severity of our winters continue.
Mr Miezitis added, “Consideration will need to be given to a road maintenance strategy beyond the current 10-year programme to provide some form of assured long-term continuity in safeguarding the council’s most valuable and economically vital element of public infrastructure.
“It must be noted that the past two years of severe winters and intense flooding have had an unexpectedly severe effect on the roads infrastructure.
“Although this has been somewhat addressed through additional funding, future strategies will need constant review should these weather conditions become more the norm.”