Investment totalling £23m in Argyll and Bute’s roads has paid off, the council said this week.
Two years ago it was revealed here that compensation payouts for damage caused by potholes had rocketed to £14,500.
But in February 2012 councillors decided to invest more than £21m in roads reconstruction, with the Scottish Government adding another £2m.
In the previous three years the council had only spent £14m on its roads network.
The council says its investment programme is now ‘substantially complete’, with the rest of the work expected to finish before Christmas, and has seen an improvement to the overall condition of the network.
A statement said: “Prior to this three year programme of works the general condition graph of our roads was on a steep decline.
“This graph has since bottomed out and is now on a slight upward curve.”
The council says that there are are now more roads in its network classified by the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland as being in good (green) condition and fewer roads in the at risk (red) condition.
By the end of the programme almost 360 miles of road, 25% of the total network, will have been upgraded.
Jim Smith, head of roads and amenity services, said: “The roads reconstruction programme has been a huge success, seeing a marked improvement to the condition of our road network.
‘’Before this huge investment our roads had been on a pretty sharp decline. I am pleased to see that alarming slide arrested and the curve now moving upwards.”
Its true that there are some good road surfaces around the loch side now. But that new machine they use
for filling pot holes. Where they spray liquid tar, then coat with road chippings. Is about as much use as
a chocolate fire guard.Within 24 hours the pot hole is back, and the chips scattered along the edge of the
road side.
Jim Smith and his team should be congratulated on the work done on roads in the H/Lomond area due to the decision taken by the administration at that time .
I have got to agree M Ward about the Jet Patcher not as good as it was expected to be .