Half a million pounds invested in summer road maintenance programme

A HALF a million pound programme of road improvements and resurfacing works is set to take place across Leicester during the summer school holidays. Leicester City Council is carrying out the works, which will see road surfaces repaired, improved and resurfaced, from late July and through August, when traffic is at its lightest.

The programme, which will cost about £580,000, includes a mixture of major resurfacing works, and smaller surface dressing improvements. Major projects include complete resurfacing work at the Red Hill Way/Thurcaston Road Island, which begins on July 23 for five days, and will cost about £131,000. The following week, Welford Road between Palmerston Way and Highgate Drive at the city boundary will also be resurfaced over five days at a cost of £158,000. That work begins on July 31.

From August 7, major resurfacing will take place for one day at the junction of Green Lane Road and Harewood Street, in Evington, at the cost of about £45,000. Elsewhere in the city, 22 other streets will benefit from one-day surface dressing works during the first two weeks of August.

Leicester City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “The school summer holidays are a chance for us to make the most of the lighter traffic flows and once again carry out a range of improvements to roads across the city.

“This year’s programme of work covers surface improvements in many different communities across the city, including Braunstone, Aylestone, Evington, Rushey Mead and Knighton. In addition, the summer break will give us the chance to carry out some much needed major road schemes, in Welford Road, Red Hill Way and Green Lane Road. In all we’re investing over half a million pounds in helping ensure that communities across the city benefit from good quality road surfaces.”

The timetable of work includes:

• August 1 – Audley End, Beaufort Road and Somerville Road in Braunstone

• August 2 – Ellesmere Road and Waltham Avenue in Braunstone

• August 3 – Cheshire Road, Whittier Road and Dartford Road in Aylestone

• August 4 – Kitchener Road in North Evington

• August 5 – Tuxford Road, Hamilton, and Nicklaus Road, Rushey Mead

• August 8 – New Fields Square, Braunstone, and Heyworth Road, Braunstone

• August 9 – Upperton Road in the West End, and Redmarle Road, Thurlington Road, Turville Road in Braunstone

• August 10 – Knighton Road, Knighton

• August 11 – Asplin Road, Broughton Road, Sheridan Street and Cavendish Road, Aylestone

• August 12 – Marydene Drive, Evington

The works are the latest phase of road improvements being made in the city. Work recently completed includes a £66,000 project to resurface Charles Street, and a £108,000 scheme to resurface Welford Road between Marlborough Street and Regent Road. Elsewhere, resurfacing work at the A50/A563 roundabout has been done as part of the ongoing North West Leicester A50 corridor improvements. A new, amber-coloured resin-bound gravel surface is also being applied to Evington Footpath this week, costing about £22,000.

In total, the city council’s Highway Capital Planned Maintenance Programme for 2016/17 is worth £3.3million, with over £2.2million being invested in improving roads and footpaths, £700,000 on bridges and £600,000 on better lighting and traffic signals. A further £1.2million from the council’s Highways Revenue Maintenance budget is being spent on repairing roads and footpaths across the city.