England’s Potholes (and how to finally fix them)
England’s potholes are always in the news. People say it ruins their cars, and councils say they don’t have enough funding to mend them. Others complain that if councils invested more in walkable communities and less cars, there would not be so many vehicles to cause them.
But what are potholes, what causes them, how can we fix them – and what happens in other countries? Let’s find out!
What exactly are potholes?
Potholes are basically ‘holes in the road’ that are a combination of heavy traffic with water, freezing and thawing cycles, which causes cracks that expand to lift pavements, then melt to leave a void underneath. If traffic then goes over the weak base, it can result in a big depression or hole.
Potholes happen mostly in spring due to increased moisture and fluctuating temperatures, which speed up the breakdown process. To permanently prevent them from returning, the underlying issues of water ingress and compaction must be addressed. Just ‘filling it in’ only keeps it from returning for a few months.
The most durable method is to replace loose soil with hot mix asphalt, that smelly stuff you sometimes see road workers putting down. There are all kinds of high-tech methods now involving sealing the edges and improving drainage so water runs into gutters, rather than pooling on roads.
There are even AI-driven robots that can seal cracks, before they even become potholes. One can stick out his robotic arm, ‘blow out debris’, and fill in the hole with hot asphalt, in three minutes!
So why in England do we have so many issues, when the technology is there? In short, chronic underfunding. Because England is now so focused on roads, there are too many to keep tab of. It would be far better to fund more walkable communities, then there would be less major roads to keep maintained.
Do other countries have as many potholes?
Usually, no. To be fair, a lot of this is to due our changeable weather creating more. But mostly it’s because other countries have this issue ‘nipped in the bud’.
Whereas England has lagged so far behind, that there is now backlog of over £18 billion of repairs. Also underfunding of our public rail systems, means more good are now carried by roads. So thundering lorries makes the issue worse, when instead we could move goods by freight trains. One heavy lorry exerts around five times more weight onto a road than a standard car.
Also in other areas of Europe, utilities (water, gas, internet) tend to place alongside roads. Whereas in the UK, most are buried under roads, so that means more digging that creates weak points where water can easily enter and start the pothole process.
Which countries have the least potholes?
The winner here is Singapore, followed by United Arab Emirates, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Hong Kong, which all look after their roads much better than here, for safer driving.
In Singapore, once potholes are reported, they are patched up within 24 hours, as long as the weather is dry. And all roads are expected weekly to every eight weeks, depending on how busy they are. Maintenance teams also use AI to scan for cracks and dips, to fix issues before they become potholes.
Whereas back in England, the average road is mended and totally resurfaced – on average once every 97 years!
Is there anything you can do?
You can report potholes to the government website.
And Fix My Street (reports are made public, so tend to get fixed quicker.
Fill That Hole is a site for cyclists to report hazards. So far, over 200,000 hazards have been reported to councils, to try to get them fixed asap.
Local highway authorities have a duty to keep public roads in good repair and to repair defects when they occur. But some roads are not public, and some sections (like railway level crossings) are maintained by other bodies, which is why it gets complicated (trunk roads and London red routes are also maintained by different organisations).
