One of my columns in August highlighted the investment in improving Reading’s roads. A £4.5m programme to resurface 76 sections of main roads over two years forms part of a wider £8m road resurfacing programme that will see hundreds of residential roads improved for residents over the next five years.
Our dedicated Highways team are always looking for new, innovative ways to make improvements around Reading that benefit residents, are better for the environment and help to reduce costs so our investment goes further and more people benefit from them. It’s no surprise that they won the Best Council Services Team award at the national MJ Awards last year.
Their latest focus is on trials to make Reading’s pavements better for pedestrians, and if you’ve travelled along Commercial Avenue, Shirley Avenue or Sun Street recently you may have noticed where the new preservation treatment has been applied.
We’re proud to be one of the first Councils in the UK trialling an innovative technique with a treatment aimed at pavements which are still in relatively good condition but showing signs of deterioration. It involves applying a barrier coating on to existing pavements that seeps into the existing surface to preserve and rejuvenate it, extending its life and negating the need for more costly and time-consuming reconstruction.
Having declared a climate emergency in 2019, Reading Borough Council is working hard to lower its carbon footprint. This new footway preservation method is cold applied, which means it has a lower carbon footprint than traditional tarmacking. Also because it can extend the life of a pavement by up to ten years, the environmental impacts of reconstruction work are negated.
Convenience for residents is another benefit of the new footway preservation method. We know it can make life more difficult for you when we need to close roads or pavements off or put in temporary diversions when we resurface, but it is necessary to bring about the improvements you need. However this preservation method is so easy to apply we can reduce a week’s work down to a day to minimise disruption.
We can also do the work in-house, performed by local workers from within the Council’s Highways team rather than needing to bring in external contractors. This reduces the time preparing tenders and the work costs, meaning we can convert these savings into improving a greater number of footways around the borough.
We are aware of the importance to you, our residents, of getting and then keeping your methods of travel in good condition, and that’s just of much importance for pedestrians as it is for drivers and cyclists. This footway preservation trial is a further example of the hard work to find smarter and more environmentally friendly ways of delivering just that.
Liz Terry is the leader of Reading Borough Council
