SHROPSHIRE Council has announced that a number of roads in and around Whitchurch are to be surface dressed this summer.

The 2019 surface dressing season is due to start in late May and continue until late July.

Surface dressing – applying and rolling aggregate ‘chippings’ onto a bitumin binder – is a quick, efficient and cost-effective way of maintaining skid-resistance and waterproofing road surfaces.

Steve Davenport, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for highways and parking, says the work will be crucial to improving the state of the roads ahead of a busy summer and winter.

“As well as improving and protecting our road surfaces, this important programme of work plays a crucial role in helping to prevent potholes and other defects forming in the future,” he added.

“Pothole treatment is very much about prevention as well as cure and this is one important way that we can aim to prevent potholes forming next winter.”

Dressing forms a major part of the council’s annual road maintenance programme and – along with resurfacing – plays an important part in preventing potholes forming on the county’s roads.

Almost 40 sites have been identified for treatment across the county on all types of road, from urban cul-de-sacs to major A and B roads.

More than 85 per cent of the sites will require a temporary road closure for the works to be carried out safely because of the width of some roads, although it is not known which roads in Whitchurch this includes.

Where road closures are not necessary, other forms of temporary traffic management will be in place, including temporary signals with convoy working where appropriate, while on cul-de-sacs limited access will be available.

For the majority of A and B roads centre line studs/cat’s eyes also need to be removed and replaced under a temporary closure.

It is envisaged that stud removal will take place overnight, followed by dressing and sweeping operations during the following couple of days.

A list of roads in and around Whitchurch set to be redressed include: Wrexham Road, from the Shropshire Boundary to Wrexham Road Roundabout and then along the A41 to Chester Road, down the A41 again from Heath Road to Tilstock, Station Road and Waymills through Whitchurch and along the A525 from Whitchurch Business Park roundabout to Nantwich Road roundabout.

Several roads in Whixall are to be redressed as well, including: Goblins Lane, Ossage Lane, Green Lane, Rack Lane, Four Lane Ends crossroads to Northwood Hall junction and Waggoners Crossroads to Fenns Boundary at Holly House in Whixall.