Edinburgh roads: New cost-effective approach on resurfacing roads and pavements makes them last 10 years longer

Council chiefs say the materials give "bangs for your buck", smoothing out surfaces and extending their life for up to 10 years while remaining within a realistic budget.

Resurfacing works on Parkgrove Crescent in Edinburgh were carried out around parked cars, leaving patches of untreated road. | Kevin Quinn

The surface treatments - micro-asphalt or surface dressing for carriageways and a third material for pavements - were previously used mainly on rural roads in Edinburgh, but are now being applied more generally. 

It has resulted in some cases where road crews have carried out the resurfacing around parked cars which owners have failed to move before the work began.

A report to the council's transport and environment committee says this is "not ideal" but "relatively infrequent". And it adds: "Whilst it may be aesthetically unpleasing, it is worth noting that any missed areas of surfacing can be completed at a later date with no detrimental impact to the effectiveness of the treatment."

The report notes that applying a surface treatment to an existing road is a very quick process, completed within a few hours, meaning disruption and road closures are kept to a minimum.

And it says: "Despite it being a thin layer, surface treatments provide a durable surface and act as a protective layer that seals the existing road, preventing water penetration, preventing failure in the underlying road make-up, and reducing the formation of cracks and other surface defects. This translates to longer-lasting road infrastructure, reducing the frequency of repairs and maintenance.

“Additionally, the patchwork of numerous public utility reinstatements and repairs made over the years is replaced with a uniform surface.

"Surface treatments restore the skid resistance of the carriageway and eliminate imperfections in the road surface."

Transport and environment convener Stephen Jenkinson said: "Rather than digging up the entire road and closing it for a long period, we're using a different approach to improve the surface and ensure it lasts a lot longer and it's actually more cost effective than tearing up a whole road.”

He acknowledged the new surfaces could look “stark” to begin with, but said they soon “settled down”. And he said: "With the treatment we're using now, you're getting a bang for your buck and getting up to another 10 years out of the road."

He said the smoother surfaces on pavements were particularly welcome.  "Because we want to make the footways and pavements more accessible, anything we can do to improve the surface helps with that accessibility, whether people are in wheelchairs or  visually impaired."  

And he said getting more roads and pavements resurfaced reflected the public's priorities.

"Roads and pavements continually come up on the doorstep so we have, in our budget, continued to invest in roads and pavements. Last year, it was an additional £12.5m went into that budget and I'm expecting that to continue. 

"And that helps us to deliver these changes. We are playing catch-up, but it's absolutely a priority for us and also for people out there.

"This is us finding a way of delivering an improvement in a financially stable way.  It's better doing 60 roads than six and if this allows us to do it and it's within the financial framework we've set ourselves then that's the road we'll go down."