£17m Investment Starts Across 320 West Sussex Highways/Footpath Schemes

West Sussex County Council is calling its new £17m spend on more than 320 projects for roads and paths "one of the biggest investments in highways in the last decade".

The local authority said on Thursday (July 8th) that works expected during this financial year include:

• 46 road resurfacing schemes worth £3.2m;
• 71 road patching projects worth £1.2m;
• 63 surface dressing schemes worth £3m, to lengthen road life in a cost-effective way;
• Resurfacing sections of the A24, A264, A2011 and A2220, investing £6.3million
• Footway improvements worth a total of £1.5m

Joy Dennis, response on the county council for Highways and Transport, said:

“This county-wide programme of works represents a significant investment in West Sussex’s highway infrastructure.

“People care passionately about the roads and footways, as do we, and we know how vital the county’s highway is, which was why our officers’ and contractors’ work continued throughout the pandemic, keeping West Sussex moving.

“We also realise road and footway work involves short-term disruption, for which we apologise, but it leads to long-term benefits: for example, resurfacing a road produces a smoother surface, reducing road noise and increasing resilience to potholes.”

Carbon reduction initiatives are included in the programme.

Joy added:

“Our officers continue to work with contractors to explore use of the latest technology, such as allowing resurfacing materials to be mixed at much lower temperatures than conventional asphalt and using recycled material from our roads.

"This can significantly cut the carbon emissions attributed to a scheme, without impacting on quality.”