25 YEARS FOR COUNTY COUNCIL TO GET IT RIGHT FOR NEXT BATCHWOOD DRIVE RE-SURFACING?

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 7th Apr 2008

Our highway infrastructure is crumbling before our eyes

The traffic chaos caused by the closure of Batchwood drive for partial re-surfacing could have been considerably lessened with more thought by the county council and its contractors, says Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for St Albans.

"The diversion signage was wholly inadequate, with no information on which parallel roads were also going to be closed," Sandy said. "A stream of cars poured down Ladies Grove, which is anyway always cloggd with hospital overspill parking, only to find the Downedge junction with Batchwood Drive closed. So they had to make laborious three-point turns to go back against the still oncoming flow just because no signage had been put at the entrance to Ladies Grove. It looked like the Brighton Pier Dodgems."

"Catherine Street and Folly Lane seized up, as traffic diverted round via Waverley and Normandy Roads. This led to knock-on effects across the city centre. Added to that, Branch Road was also closed temporarily at the same time, almost cutting off St Michael's."

"Even after all this, whole chunks of Batchwood Drive are still left in a pretty poor condition," Sandy said. "It seems astonishing that the opportunity was not taken to do a proper job. I find that nothing outrages local residents more than the state of local roads and pavements and the poor impression they give of our city."

A new report by the Asphalt Industry Alliance gives no comfort that there will be any improvement soon, Sandy revealed. Their April 2008 ALARM Survey based on responses from highway authorities themselves shows that more money (£53 million) is spent across the UK on compensation for damage caused by potholes than on mending the potholes themselves (£52 million). Based on national averages, if Batchwood Drive is classed as a principal road, the just completed works might be next resurfaced in 25 years time. Unclassified roads in St Albans can expect an 87 year gap between re-surfacing. People will be born, grow up and die without their streets being touched. Rural lanes outside the city will only be resurfaced on average every 138 years.

"Our highway infrastructure is crumbling before our eyes," Sandy concluded. "Pressure from traffic continues to grow with development. In the meantime, the patchwork of apparently random and wholly inadequate pothole patching continues to blight our city."

ENDS

For more information, please call Sandy Walkington on 07802 177317

The full ALARM 2008 Survey can be accessed at http://www.asphaltindustryalliance.com/news-press.asp?id=64&start=0