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Track to the future
Page 7
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• Following the Department of Transport's latest report on the state of Britain's roads, the FTA is calling for immediate action to stem the deterioration of rural highways.
The National Road Maintenance Condition Survey shows that most roads are in no better state of repair today than they were in 1977 — the first year for which records are available — and many are worse.
There was a general improvement from 1977 to 1980, followed by deterioration until 1986, no change for the next two years, and then an improvement in 1988, but only back to 1977 levels.
Rural roads came out the worst in the report, with standards significantly below those in 1977. "This is clearly unacceptable," says Don McIntyre, the ETA's controller of highways and traffic. "Rural roads are being neglected and allowed to decay, which is a reflection of local authorities having insufficient funds. We want money injected urgently to retrieve the situation -after all these roads are therefore crucial to the economy of rural areas."
Ll A .2400 million maintenance programme for motorways, allpurpose trunk roads and bridges planned is planned for 1990/9L Planned expenditure on structural road maintenance is .294m — an increase of
— and planned spending on structural bridge maintenance including the Severn Bridge is Marn; up by £12m.