The Government has awarded £3.4 million in Challenge Fund cash to enable ten projects that will improve the flood resilience of the roads in South Gloucestershire.
The ten projects, including one in Bristol, will improve a number of roads that have been affected by flooding in the past due to extreme weather. We will be upgrading drainage infrastructure and use innovative methods that will reduce the need for reactive maintenance works and ultimately result in a cost saving for the council.
The projects were identified using Highway Infrastructure Resilience Assessment Modelling Tool (HIRAM). HIRAM was developed in the South West and enables engineers to establish areas on the network that are at risk and the economic gain to the area and community if a solution is found and the risk mitigated.
We are aiming at making our roads more resilient to enable us to withstand greater rainfall. The schemes will involve upgrades to the existing drainage systems, replacing the old ones with more modern solutions.
We will be able to install new technology that will helps the council to monitor rainfall and water levels to enable us not only to better understand what risks are our communities facing, to plan better responses to flood events and to plan maintenance requirements more effectively.
The roads where work will be carried out are:
- A431 (Bath Road), Swineford
- A4175 Cherry Gardens Road, Bitton
- B4058 (High Street), Winterbourne
- A420 (High Street), Wick
- B4058 Bagstone, Rangeworthy
- Church Road & Chapel Road & Camp Road, Oldbury on Severn
- Oldbury Lane, Thornbury
- Beckspool Road, Frenchay
- Abson Road, Pucklechurch
- Scotland Lane Stockwood, Bristol.
Cabinet Member for Planning, Transport and the Strategic Environment, Councillor Colin Hunt, welcomed the new cash, saying: “This new funding will benefit South Gloucestershire residents and other road users by reducing the disruption caused by flooding when we see extreme weather. By putting in better drainage systems, the council will also save money long term by reducing the need for expensive repair work.
“We have successfully lobbied Government for this funding because we need to make sure that our infrastructure can cope as the environment changes. While our budgets remain tight, this extra money means that we can continue to invest for the future as well as managing the day to day needs of road users.”
The total value of the projects is £3.7m. The councils will contribute £300,000 from existing maintenance budgets.
