Road Resurfacing Fund

The Department for Transport (DfT) granted funds to West Sussex County Council from the Road Resurfacing Fund for 2023-2025 financial years. This grant was funded by the Government to improve local highways maintenance, particularly for the resurfacing of carriageways, cycleways, and footways to prevent potholes and other road defects from occurring.

DfT provided for 2023/2024 £2.161m and for 2024/2025 £2.161m totalling £4.322m. This total funding amount was used to deliver 32 schemes (see table below) totalling 31.51km in length.

The schemes were included with the approved Highways, Transport and Planning Delivery Programme 2024-2025.

Further details on resurfacing operations can be found on our road resurfacing page.

How we used our street works and other powers so resurfacing works are not undermined by repeated digging up of the same road by utility companies

As the Highways Authority for West Sussex, we worked closely with utility companies who supply power, water, gas and telecoms to our communities.

Regular individual meetings were held with each utility company to review their performance and discuss any issues. We also held quarterly works coordination meetings where all future programmes were tabled and reviewed, including our own resurfacing programme.

In addition, to make full use of available legislation to protect any newly resurfaced assets, we also issued Section 58 notices (NRSWA '91) for all our large-scale resurfacing works at least 3 months before the works began. This maximised opportunities for utility companies to bring forward any planned works for completion before our resurfacing activities.

Inspections and surveys were carried out to collect and analyse our data which helps utilise the Lane Rental Scheme with the ability to bid for funds.

How we introduced innovation in the delivery of highways maintenance

West Sussex Highways have a strong focus on innovation in the delivery of highway maintenance. Recently, we have completed the first year of Halogen Bulb Replacement Programme. This 3-year programme converted all signals and street lighting to the latest LED technology throughout the county.

The project contributed significantly towards our pledge to become carbon neutral by 2030, by delivering an 11% energy and carbon reduction value of the total traffic signals usage.

We are now using warm mix asphalt (WMA) for carriageway resurfacing which helps reduce cooling time by 50% and reducing 10% of carbon emission, improving productivity and reducing public disruption.

Use of reclaimed or recycled asphalt planings (RAP), avoids using new plannings and protect natural resources for future generations.

Introduction of Bus Priority Signal technology has helped in traffic reduction by giving buses priority access to a section of road.

Total investment in local highway networks for the previous 5 years and planned investment for 2024 to 2025, split between Department for Transport (DfT) and local funding

The table below shows the Highways, Transport and Planning Delivery Programme spend for the period 2019 to 2025 on roads, pavements, bridges, drainage, safety barriers and traffic signals.

Highways, transport and planning delivery programme

You can find out where capital-funded road maintenance and improvement schemes are planned, by viewing our highways, transport and planning delivery programme page.