C98 to Hopes Reservoir

East Lothian Council maintains 912km of which 90km are principle roads. East Lothian is considered semi rural with 338km of roads in built up areas. The Council is responsible for the maintenance of 980,000-sq.m footway, approximately 5500 road signs, the cutting of rural verges, and the cleaning and repair of approximately 12,000 road gullies. The total maintainable asset being over 9.8 million square metres.

In managing the road network, the Council has adopted the 'Code of Practice for Maintenance Management – Delivering Best Value in Highway Maintenance'. Safety and service inspections are frequently undertaken with defects being recorded and programmed for action according to their seriousness. Various tools, procedures and techniques are used to deliver best value and allocate resources to where the need is greatest. In addressing the ongoing problem of carriageway repairs, the Council has invested in a 'Jetpatcher' to promptly deal with the majority of potholes problems.

The Council is committed to the improvement of the road infrastructure with an increased investment in resources. Over the last few years, the Council has been assessing the condition of the road pavement by means of mobile surveys measuring rut depth, profile and texture. Increased investment in the road network has produced a rise in the number of resurfaced and surface-dressed roads from 2.2% of the total length in 2000/ 2001 to 7.6 % in 2003/ 2004 and an average of £250,000 is committed to footway repairs each financial year.

East Lothian Council employ approximately 50 roadmen who attend to the day to day cyclic maintenance activities and also undertake the wide-ranging programme of road network improvements and resurfacing works.