The Parish Council has raised the concerns expressed by residents over the recent surface dressing of the B1049 with the County Council team responsible for this work. Whilst a level of frustration is understandable given the inevitable disruption and whilst processes can always be improved there have been some forceful opinions expressed and strong assertions made.

The County Council is ‘happy with the continued embedment of the dressing and the situation regarding loose chipping on the site’ and is ‘monitoring the road closely’; it has ‘already ordered a further sweep of the footway/cycleway and the kerbside channels to mitigate any problems.”

An explanation is provided of why surface dressing is used over a full resurfacing:

“Surface Dressing is a process that has been used in this country for over six decades, and has changed little in its remit and process other than an improvement in the materials used.

The object of Surface Dressing a road is as a preventative treatment to seal the road against the ingress of water, thus preventing the formation of potholes in the Winter; it improves the skid resistance of a road by adding texture and therefore extends the life of the carriageway by up to 8 years. It also gives conformity to a heavily scarred road surface.

However, the object of Surface Dressing as a coating treatment is not to re-profile a road, or repair roads where there are structural issues. In essence, it will not remove the dips and holes. Where required, the worst of these are addressed by planned preparation works carried out several months in advance of the actual Surface Dressing treatment.

A Surface Dressing program is undertaken annually by Cambridgeshire County Council, and is a robust and cost effective way to maintain the highway network. Conventional surfacing can cost in excess of ten times more than Surface Dressing. The County Council identifies roads with structural issues using a Scanning Machine that carries out an annual survey. It is from the results of this, that funding is allocated for schemes to fully re-surface a carriageway. For roads that do not fall in to this criteria, it is necessary to look at other surface treatment solutions, of which, Surface Dressing forms a major part of the council’s planned maintenance program.

The Surface Dressing process itself, involves the spreading of bitumen on the road surface followed by the application of aggregate or chippings. Whilst the treatment is a relatively quick mobile process; like any highway work, it is disruptive during the application and for a period of time whilst embedment is actioned.

The embedment process is started by rolling the surface and then the action of traffic in the following days enhances this further. During this period, advisory 20mph signs and Loose Chipping signs are placed along the site to warn users of the public highway.

Our contractor has a sweeping regime to remove loose stones from the carriageway, which is carried out after 24 hours, 48 hours and finally at 7 days. Further sweeping will be ordered after this period should it be necessary.

A final end of season inspection will be carried out and any issues, including further sweeping will be identified. A further post winter inspection will also be carried out to ascertain the performance of the surface and any issues arising.

Every effort is made to ensure that the Surface Dressing process has the least impact on the travelling public as possible, including cyclists. To assist with this, we carry out a review at the end of each season to discuss any issues encountered, and where appropriate put in place improvements for the future.”

There has also been an assumption that the resurfacing ’caused’ the flooding which occurred shortly after this. However whilst it may or may not have been a small contributory factor there is no evidence to suggest it was any more than that – the timing was a coincidence. There has been a promise to send a camera along the culvert underneath which should provide more answers, but the flooding itself was caused by an astonishing amount of rain in a short period (twice).

The forthcoming work to the southern section of the B1049 is a full surface replacement, not just a dressing.