Blogs Highways Highlight

A pothole is where the surface of the road has been eroded and a hollow has formed.

Potholes are usually formed through a process called the ‘freeze-thaw’ cycle. Roads get worn down by traffic and become more porous over time. As the weather gets colder, the cracks in the road can become filled with ice, forcing the hole to expand and push the tarmac up and out. Gaps are created in the tarmac when the ice thaws and turns back into water, and they get bigger and bigger each time water freezes and then thaws. This weakens the road, and the gaps cave in when traffic travels over them, creating a pothole.

Our Area Inspectors and Safety Inspectors proactively inspect their local areas for potholes and other road defects and highway issues. All defects are inspected and assessed to determine whether a repair is required, and if so, what kind of repair it might need.

The roads are inspected regularly according to a schedule. This means a lot of potholes will be picked up by these inspections and programmed for repair. On average 2,500 potholes are repaired each month (yes, really!) although this does vary seasonally. Since the formation of Buckinghamshire Highways on 1 April 2023, we have now repaired over 87,300 road defects (including potholes).

Of course, we also find out about potholes from local residents who make reports via FixMyStreet.

Not every defect on the highways requires an immediate repair. All issues that are reported to us are reviewed within 10 days.

All repairs are based on the risk they pose to the public and depend on:

• The extent, depth and surface area of the defect
• The volume and speed of traffic on the road where the defect has been reported
• The location of the defect, such as proximity to junctions and bends
• Forecast weather conditions

We aim to make emergencies safe within two hours and other priority repairs within five to 28 days. Non-urgent defects will be added to future planned works.

Whilst we will always aim to do a permanent fix on our first visit, there are occasions where this is not possible and we have to carry out a temporary repair to a pothole or road defect instead. This can be for a number of reasons, including weather conditions, larger works being planned in the area in the future (meaning the road will be dug up and the repair made redundant) or the condition of the road.

You might also wonder why we fix one pothole on a road, but not another pothole on the same road. It can be frustrating to see this happen, but there is method to (what seems like) the madness. The reason really is simple; we have a finite amount of finance, and therefore workforce, to fill the potholes. We have to use them effectively, to ensure those deemed most hazardous and therefore requiring urgent repair are fixed first.

If we were to use resources filling in a non-urgent repair, a pothole of a higher priority may not be able to be repaired. Safety is our first concern, so urgent fixes must be done first, and that means sometimes we will be seen fixing one safety critical pothole on a road, but not another, smaller pothole.