The total length of adopted highways in Wigan Borough is 1051km (657 miles). The control of weeds on pavements, footpaths, and highways is carried out by a contractor on behalf of the council. Spraying is carried out twice a year.
How does the council 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 micro asphalt 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 scheduled inspection programme 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 15,500 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 are dependent on its severity and regard to its location (busy footways and roads taking priority) and we are currently performing at a high level of achievement when completing these repairs.
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 over 1,000 pothole reports.
To report problems on the highway, such as:
- potholes
- gullies
- flagstones
- kerbstones
- overhanging vegetation
- damaged / uneven manhole covers
... 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.
Annual programme of maintenance work 2012-2013
The council has published its list of planned works for the year ahead. Download a copy of the Annual Programme of Maintenance Works (.pdf, 65kb)
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.
