Oldham Council is to discuss a major programme of infrastructure repairs to roads, bridges and carriageways damaged by the severe wet weather that hit the borough last winter.
Cabinet will decide on the proposals when they meet on Monday, June 30. It follows a successful bid by the local authority for money from the Government’s Severe Weather Recovery Fund. The Council was awarded £811,773.
The money would be used to repair surfaces on a number of roads that were worst affected by the rain. These include improving the A62 Huddersfield Road – one of the priority routes into the borough – by allocating £260,000 of funding towards repairing it.
This will complement the other corridor works funded elsewhere in our programmes. Other works include bringing some of Saddleworth’s unclassified roads and carriageways identified as secondary corridors up to standard – meaning less money will need to be spent carrying out temporary repairs on them in the future.
Councillor Dave Hibbert, Oldham Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, Planning and Transport, said: “Oldham’s roads and infrastructure, like those nationwide, have suffered due to the extreme wet weather we endured earlier in the year. Our location, high on the Pennine plateau, means the 817km of roads we monitor, and the bridges and retaining walls we are responsible for maintaining, are more susceptible to cold and wet weather damage than those in other boroughs.
“This money will allow us to carry out maintenance and work on areas we have identified as being in most need. Repairing Huddersfield Road will mean that people visiting and commuting along one of our major gateways into the borough have a better journey, which is important to us. As a Council we are doing our bit – we have invested £12m improving our highways over the last few years and are now much more proactive in managing our highways maintenance work rather than being reactive.
“This government money is welcomed but the condition of road infrastructure remains a major national problem.”
