Road Maintenance

We are responsible for the maintenance of county roads under various sections of the Highways Act 1980. Section 41 imposes a duty to maintain highways at public expense.

The maintenance of trunk roads and motorways is the responsibility of agents working on behalf of the Highways Agency. For further information on these roads please see the bottom of the page.

We follow the guidance in the Code of Practice for Highways Maintenance Management, issued in July 2005, which outlines the requirements of how to maintain highways in a well managed way. This Code is produced by the UK Roads Board and supported by the Department for Transport, along with various other major highway bodies.

The maintenance of roads in your county is looked after by Highways Management Services, a part of the Environment service of Durham County Council. We have around 3,700km (2,300 miles) of county roads. There are also around 78,000 street lights and approximately 5,500 illuminated road signs to be maintained on the highway network.

Maintenance of these assets is carried out in a methodical manner, as recommended in the Code of Practice. Our inspectors carry out Safety surveys of the road network according to the chart below, which shows the frequency and hierarchy for the surveys.

Category	Hierarchy Description	General Description	Frequency
2	Strategic Routes	Non-motorway trunk and some principal "A" roads between primary destinations.	1 Month
3a	Main Distributor	Major urban network and inter-primary links. Short-medium distance traffic.	1 Month
3b	Secondary Distributor	Classified roads (B & C class) and unclassified urban bus routes carrying local traffic with frontage access and frequent junctions.	1 Month
4a	Link Road	Roads linking between main and secondary distributor network with frontage access and frequent junctions.	3 Months
4b	Local Access Road	Roads serving limited number of properties carrying only access traffic (e.g. cul-de-sacs).	1 Year

Annually we carry out a variety of Highway Maintenance schemes, covering both routine and structural tasks. We will carry out routine work such as pothole repairs, white line painting, replacing signs, gully emptying, grass cutting, weed control and footway repairs. Structurally we will rebuild the carriageway where it has failed, replace highway drainage and carry out resurfacing on the carriageway and footways, as and when it is needed. In addition to these tasks, we also manage the highway by monitoring and acting on highway openings carried out by Public Utility companies, issuing licences for skips to be used in the highway and handling obstructions and incidents in the highway, such as flooding.

There are a number of policies, strategies and also legislation, which regulate the way in which we carry out our work. For example:

• Highways Act 1980
• Local Transport Plan
• Disability Discrimination Act
• Code of Practice for Highways Maintenance Management
• Construction Design and Management Regulations
• Traffic Management Act
• Winter Service Plan
• Highways Safety Inspection Manual
• Environmental Management System
• Sustainability

If you have any problems about highway matters on County Roads, contact our Highways Action Line.

If you have any problems on Motorways and Trunk Roads the contacts for these roads are as follows

For problems on the A1(M) and Trunk Road A66 are dealt with by agents for the Highways Agency:

A-One
Valley House
Valley Street North
Darlington
DL1 1TL
Tel: 01325 341630
Fax: 01325 385777

All problems on the Trunk Road A19 are dealt with by agents for the Highways Agency:

Autolink Concessionaires (A19) Limited
Billingham Reach Industrial Estate
Haverton Hill Road
Billingham
Cleveland
TS23 1PX
Tel: 01642 560637
Fax: 01642 560861