This week, the Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) has launched Pothole Prevention Week as part of its on-going commitment to highlight the benefits of surface treatments that prevent potholes from forming in the first place.

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Joining us on Highways Voices for this conversation (see below), is Mike Hansford, the new Chief Executive of the RSTA and Craig Marshall, Head of Commercial at ASI Solutions, a RSTA member and provider of the RHINOPHALT asphalt preservation product.

Preventative or surface treatments protect and preserve roads so that they last longer and are protected from defects and potholes.

Once these treatments are applied, roads can last for up to 10-20 years longer or more, depending on the treatment. That’s roads without potholes for that long or even longer if re-application is possible.

In taking a more proactive approach, the life-expectancy of a road in the UK could be increased, and potholes significantly reduced, if local authorities and their private sector contractors adopt a more proactive approach to highway maintenance alongside other treatments such as resurfacing.

This would mean central government would eventually be spending far less on reactive repairs such as filling in potholes by adopting a ‘prevention is better than cure’ approach to highway maintenance funding, rather than ‘papering over the cracks’ with pothole repairs, for them only to appear again later in the medium term.