The total length of adopted highways in Wigan Borough is 932km (583 miles). The control of weeds on pavements, footpaths, and highways is carried out by a contractor on behalf of Environmental Services. Spraying is carried out twice a year.
How do we maintain our highways?
There are three categories under which highway maintenance work can be said to fall:
- The council has an annual structural maintenance programme of planned work, consisting of road resurfacing and / or pavement reconstruction schemes.
- An annual programme to prevent the condition of roads and pavements getting worse is also carried out in the form of carriageway surface dressing or slurry sealing and footway slurry sealing. This does not involve digging down and rebuilding but is a kind of surface covering, rather like painting woodwork to prolong its life.
- There is a budget to carry out minor repairs to areas of general deterioration, such as damage to pavements by motor vehicles, which is increasingly a major problem.
Reporting problems
The council carries out a regular inspection program on its roads and footways (this means all the adopted roads), and we appreciate the assistance of the public in alerting us to issues. Typically these issues are uneven and broken flags that create tripping hazards and potholes in the road that can cause damage to vehicles.
On average the council deals with 12,000 defects each year of which the majority (80 per cent) are identified from our safety inspections to ensure we can get them repaired quickly.
The response times set to attend a defect range from 2 hours to 7 working days depending on its severity and regard to its location (busy footways and roads taking priority) and we are currently performing at a 90 per cent achievement rate in meeting these response times.
However, there are instances when defects occur in between our inspections and we rely on the general public to bring these to our attention so that we can deal with the problems quickly. This is especially important in winter month when snow and ice can break up road surfaces forming potholes. Last winter alone we dealt with 2,600 pothole reports.
To report problems on the highway, such as:
- potholes
- gullies
- flagstones
- kerbstones
- overhanging vegetation
... please use our online fault reporting service, or ring the Environmental Services Helpline 01942 404364.
To report other issues on the roadway, you may want to use the broken glass or spillages on the road online form or contact the Helpline.
Programme of Works 2011-2012
Winter damaged roads repaired with Department for Transport grant aid 2011-12
As we prepare ourselves for the on coming winter period, the Council can report that its most badly affected roads caused by last season’s conditions have now been repaired.
The Department for Transport recognised that the extremely severe and prolonged weather conditions experienced over the last two winter seasons had resulted in a rapid deterioration of many roads across the country and made an additional £200 million available to help tackle the problem. The Council received £623,330 of this money based on the length of roads across the borough.
This additional funding has enabled Wigan to arrest the deterioration to a large number of its roads caused by last winters severe conditions, which if not captured could have seen many roads now requiring extensive deep repairs in order to rehabilitate. Additionally as a result of this funding Wigan have been able to enhance and continue with its long term carriageway resurfacing plan which otherwise may have displaced identified surfacing schemes.
The lists below detail those sections of roads that were identified in need of urgent attention because of accelerated deterioration due to the severe winter. These are above and beyond that of the identified provisional programme of works for the financial year 2011-12.
Carriageway resurfacing works
- A49 Warrington Road, Wigan (Marus Bridge Island)
- A573 Walthew Lane, Platt Bridge (Disused Railway Bridge - Fairfield Street)
- A573 Walthew Lane, Platt Bridge (Peel Street - O/S No 88)
- A577 Lovers Lane, Atherton (Lovers Lane - Telford Street)
- A577 Orrell Road, Orrell (Orrell Post Junction)
- A577 Ormskirk Road, Pemberton (Fleet Street - Richmond Hill)
- A579 Bolton Road, Atherton (Upton Road Junction)
- A5209 Crow Orchard Road, Standish (Rear No 98 Shevington Moor)
- B5238 Whelley, Wigan (Bradshaw Street - Newman Street) (even side only)
- B5239 Meadow Pitt Lane, Haigh (Whittle Tag Farm - Riley Lane)
- Dobson Park Way, Ince (full length)
- Bank Street, Golborne (Prescott Street - Grimshaw Street) (odd side only)
- Nel Pan Lane, Leigh (Wigan Road - O/S No 285)
- Kenyon Lane, Lowton (Wilton Lane - Warrington boundary)
- Holden Road, Leigh (Bold Street - Beverley Avenue)
- Ashdale Road, Wigan (Fulbeck Avenue - O/S No 14)
- Haig Street, Wigan (Pennyhurst Street - Wallgate)
Major carriageway patching works
- A58 Bolton Road, Ashton (Bryn Gates Lane – School Street)
- A58 Lily Lane,Abram (Warrington Road – Bryn Gates Lane)
- A573 Aye Bridge Road, Abram (Wigan Road – Warrington Road)
- A573 Wigan Road, Golborne (Ashton Road – Aye Bridge Road)
- B5375 Wigan Lower Road, Standish Lower Ground (St Christopher Court – Wigan Road)
- Old Lane, Shevington (Wigan Road – Shevington Lane)
- Church Lane, Shevington (Broad O’th Lane – Old Lane)
- Broad O’th Lane, Shevington (Shevington Lane – Gathurst Road)
- Shevington Lane, Shevington (Broad O’th Lane – Kilburn Drive)
- Gathurst Lane, Shevington (Broad O’th Lane – The Oval)
- Frog Lane, Wigan (Lower St Stephens Street – Diggle Street)
- Gidlow Lane, Wigan (Beech Hill Avenue – Villa Avenue)
Wigan is continuing to work hard to keep our roads as safe as possible. You can report potholes and safety defects on the Council’s roads and footways by pressing the ‘Report it’ button at the top of this page or by calling 01942 404364.
