The UK’s pothole epidemic is intensifying, with the RAC dealing with 10 per cent more breakdowns caused by drivers hitting potholes than a year ago.
In the year to the end of March, the RAC received around 27,205 breakdown calls due to poor road surfaces in the UK. That compares with 24,906 during the previous 12 months, the motor services company said.
The new figures are revealed after the RAC said it had been called into emergency over a record number of pothole breakdowns in 2023, as the government and local authorities fail to grasp the country’s crumbling road crisis.
The UK’s pothole crisis is getting worse every year, with the RAC already dealing with almost 8,000 (7,904) breakdowns in the first three months of 2024 due to poor British road surfaces. UK drivers are now twice as likely to suffer a pothole-related breakdown than in 2006.
The roadside assistance provider recorded almost 8,000 (7,904) calls for pothole-related damage in the first three months of 2024 due to deteriorating road surfaces in Britain.
Road patrols have been called to deal with an average of 87 breakdowns per day caused by potholes, for failures including broken suspension springs, damaged shock absorbers and deformed wheels.
This represents 22 percent fewer pothole-related breakdowns than the RAC dealt with between January and March 2023 (10,076), which the company attributed to the “unusually mild weather” observed earlier this year.
Only seven days of frost were recorded in the first three months of 2023 (compared to the usual nine), which could have potentially limited the number of new potholes that formed.
During the winter months, freezing temperatures typically cause further surface deterioration as water enters road cracks, freezes, and expands.
The RAC’s pothole index, which measures the likelihood of experiencing a callout caused by potholes, suggested warmer temperatures have helped the UK “dodge the bullet of a pothole”.
While calls for pothole problems decreased in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same three months in 2023, they increased 53 percent from the last three months of last year.
The RAC said this is a “clear sign that the UK is suffering from a pothole epidemic as roads continue to crumble”.
And compared to 2006, when the RAC began tracking these faults, drivers are now almost twice as likely to suffer damage from potholes.
This is Money reported that damage caused by potholes cost UK drivers £500 million last year.
Insurance claims related to potholes have also skyrocketed 40 percent in one year, also reaching record levels.
HS2 railway construction work is taking place on the Wendover Dean Viaduct in Buckinghamshire. Ministers have stated that funds from the canceled project will be used to improve road maintenance.
The RAC is calling on local authorities to allocate recent government funding to better tackle the road surface crisis.
In October, the Government announced it would provide £8.3bn of additional funding over 11 years to fix potholes in England.
This was part of Network North’s strategy to use the money saved by scrapping the planned extension of HS2 north of Birmingham.
However, the cost of improving pothole-riddled local roads in England and Wales has been estimated at £16.3bn, according to the latest analysis from the Asphalt Industry Alliance.
RAC policy chief Simon Williams said: “All the cracks left by years of declining road maintenance budgets cannot be easily filled.”
“Although the Government has given councils an extra £8.3bn for road maintenance following the cancellation of the northern section of HS2, we know this is only enough to resurface 5,000 miles of roads, the equivalent of just 3 per cent. percent of all local road spending in England.
‘To make the most of this funding, we implore local authorities to focus their efforts on resurfacing the worst roads in their areas rather than futilely trying to patch pothole-ridden roads that cannot be saved from further deterioration.
“And now is the time to take preventive measures, as it is between the warmer months of April and September that vital surface treatment work can be carried out to prolong the life of roads.
“Unfortunately, the government data we analyzed shows that 60 per cent of English councils did not carry out any such work in the 2022-2023 financial year.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson responded: “Local road authorities are responsible for maintaining their road networks, but we are supporting them with £8.3bn of reallocated HS2 funding over the next 10 years, the largest ever increase in funding for local road improvements which comes on top of an existing £5.5bn fund.
“Local authorities received the first £150m of this increase just weeks after announcing our additional funding in October, and will receive a further £150m this year to continue improving local roads.”
Darren Rodwell, transport spokesperson for the Local Government Association, added: “Councils share the concerns of all road users regarding the state of our roads and are doing everything they can to address the £16.3bn backlog. sterling in road repairs, including learning and adopting innovative techniques.
‘More consistent, long-term, year-on-year funding for the maintenance of all parts of our roads will help them achieve this.
“The Government should give council roads departments five-year funding allocations, to bring them in line with National Highways, to give them more certainty to develop resurfacing programs and other road improvements, to help them tackle the scourge of potholes”.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them, we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.