Road flooding
Flooded and waterlogged roads result when the amount of water arriving on the road is greater than the capacity of the drainage facilities that take it away.
Even when drains are in good working order some situations can lead to the road flooding or being waterlogged:
- exceptional rainfall
- a road being in a low lying area
- changes in 'run off' from adjacent fields
- a waterway overflowing
Gullies
Our specialist contractor keeps 137,000 drainage gullies across West Sussex clean.
We prioritise them by the level of silting that occurs in them, but this can alter through changing conditions.
If you see a gully that is overflowing this may not necessarily be due to silt, but possibly due to excess surface water.
Find out how to report different types of flooding such as from rivers or sewers.
Drainage maintenance
Cyclical drainage maintenance
West Sussex County Council operates a 2-year drainage cleansing programme across the county.
We maintain around 160,000 drainage assets, including gullies, manholes and catchpits. We cleanse all assets at least once every 2 years. Higher-priority sites receive more frequent maintenance, with cleansing every 6 months or every year.
We also operate 3 reactive jetting vehicles that respond to flooding reports throughout the year. The teams aim to clear flooding and restore the drainage system to full working order. Where this is not possible, they carry out CCTV surveys and provide detailed reports so we can plan further repair work.
More information about flooding
We have lots more information about all types of flooding and flood protection in our Flooding section, including:
- where you can purchase sandbags and other flood protection products
- how to sign up for flood warnings
Operation Watershed
Following extreme weather experienced in 2012, Operation Watershed was set up to invest in highway drainage and environmental improvements in areas of the county worst affected by the flooding.