More investment coming for highways in the year ahead

Swansea Council's Cabinet has approved a programme of work that will see road repairs, footpath upgrades and street light improvements across all communities in the city.

The package of measures, including almost £6m in the next 12 months with similar sums to follow in the two years after, will see roads repaired and work to prevent roads in good condition from deteriorating.

This year around £1.1m will be invested in the PATCH scheme with a further £1.1m being spent on carriageway resurfacing as well as footway renewals and repairs. There will be £250,000 for street light refurbishment and £400,000 for drainage and preventing flooding during heavy rain.

In addition to that there will be a further £2m set aside for highways and footway resurfacing projects and £800,000 to repair the Morfa Culvert.

Andrew Stevens, Cabinet Member for Environment and Infrastructure, said the highways fund was a significant investment in improving city roads and footpaths in city communities.

The budget agreed by Cabinet is expected to be boosted by further funding for roads resurfacing and PATCH later in the year and Cllr Stevens added: "Our PATCH road repair programme has been ongoing for a number of years and has been very successful in targeting repairs that are larger than a pothole.

"Everyone in the city should see a benefit where they live because we plan it so our highway maintenance teams visit every ward and target the worst sections of road identified during our regular inspections."

Further funding will be directed towards tackling the backlog of repairs which are monitored during regular highway inspections and includes potholes repairs and pavement improvements.

Cllr Stevens said: "In the first two months of 2023 we completed road resurfacing projects in Townhill Road, Mayhill, Gellionnen Road and Cecil Road in Gowerton on top of PATCH repairs in areas like Sketty, Bishopston, Mayals and Uplands.

He added: "This is a significant investment in our city's highway infrastructure and the improvements we are doing help prevent road conditions from deteriorating. We are responsible for a large and varied range of highway assets including over 1,100km of road, street lights, car parks and traffic control signals."