Road chiefs promote the benefits of putting chippings on county's highways

Shropshire Council says its programme has improved 80 miles of road in more than 50 stretches during work that started on April 27 and ended on August 1.

Surface dressing has been controversial among some, who complain about the chippings. But the council says the strategy is effective in stopping roads from deteriorating.

Surface dressing involves applying and rolling aggregate ‘chippings’ onto bitumen.

The council says it plays a key role in improving the county’s roads, and is a quick, efficient and cost-effective way of preventing potholes, maintaining skid-resistance and waterproofing road surfaces.

They say in total, 80 miles of road have been dressed – the distance from Church Stretton to Cardiff as the crow flies – with 763,688m2 of road treated – the equivalent of 107 Wembley football pitches.

The sites treated are located across the county and include all types of road, from urban cul-de-sacs to major ‘A’ and ‘B’ roads.

Surface dressing forms a major part of Shropshire Council’s annual road maintenance programme and is carried out alongside other preventative and reactive maintenance work.

The work is carried out by Kier, the council’s highways contractor.

Councillor Dan Morris, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways, said: "Surface dressing is a simple and highly cost-effective method of maintaining the road surface which can prevent much more expensive work being needed later, and it allows us to maintain a high-quality road network on a limited budget.

“I want to say thank you to all from Shropshire Council and our contractor Kier for successfully delivering this year’s surface dressing programme.

“As well as improving and protecting our roads, this important programme of work plays a crucial role in helping to prevent potholes and other defects forming in the future. Pothole treatment is very much about prevention as well as cure and this is one important way that we can aim to prevent potholes forming next winter.”

Ian McLellan, general manager at Kier Transportation, said: “Surface dressing extends the life of roads by up to 15 years, and is more sustainable than resurfacing methods.

"The preventative road surface treatment is applied before roads are past the point of repair – and through this early intervention, we will have no doubt improved journeys for thousands of residents and road users for years to come.”

Surface dressing seals the road surface, improves surface texture and prolongs the life of the road, they say.

A spokesperson added: "The rapid speed of the process means that disruption to road users, local businesses and emergency services is minimised.

"Surface dressing is a preventative maintenance treatment that is best used before the road deteriorates significantly.

"It may look like money is being spent on perfectly adequate roads while there are roads in a poor condition, but they’re being surface dressed to keep the roads in a good condition for much longer."