Dorset Highways is responsible for a significant amount of infrastructure including carriageways, footpaths, cycleways, traffic signals, signs, street lighting, safety fences, verges, bridges, and public rights of way.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has requested that all local highways authorities publish information about their highways maintenance activities to demonstrate to local taxpayers the difference that funding is making in their areas.
Dorset Council is responsible for managing a vast network of highways, footways, and cycleways.
We oversee a total of 3,797 km of roads, including:
In addition, our:
Our drainage systems capture and remove water from roads, footways, and cycleways to prevent surface water accumulation, which can freeze in the winter months and cause erosion, as well as damage to the highway structure.
Bridges and structures are essential to support the carriageway network. Without them, a continuous highway network would not exist. Around 10% of our bridge this stock is covered by a form of heritage protection, with either listed building or scheduled monument classification. We maintain:
We manage 45,533 metres of safety fencing to protect drivers from hazards and redirect errant vehicles back onto the highway
Our street lighting stock includes around 46,000 street lighting elements, including 4,600 illuminated traffic signs and bollards, managed through a private finance initiative (PFI) contract with 'Enerveo Ltd'.
Our traffic control assets include:
We're responsible for:
The council does not maintain trunk roads which are the responsibility of National Highways.
Our spending on highways maintenance is divided into preventative and reactive maintenance.
Preventative maintenance includes activities like resurfacing roads and maintaining structures to prevent issues before they arise.
Reactive maintenance involves addressing immediate problems, such as filling potholes.
We aim to increase the proportion of our budget spent on preventative maintenance to extend the lifespan of our assets and reduce long-term costs in a planned and cost-effective manner. Here is a summary of our recent and planned resurfacing and maintenance activities which include:
| Year | Resurfaced / treated (km) | Structures maintained |
|---|---|---|
| 2020/2021 | 98.4 | 71 |
| 2021/2022 | 255.14 | 62 |
| 2022/2023 | 159.77 | 62 |
| 2023/2024 | 229.90 | 42 |
| 2024/2025 | 212.70 | 43 |
Reactive maintenance focuses on urgent repairs, such as pothole filling. Here is the number of potholes filled in recent years:
| Year | Carriageway potholes | Footway potholes |
|---|---|---|
| 2020/2021 | 7,329 | 392 |
| 2021/2022 | 7,026 | 348 |
| 2022/2023 | 7,643 | 276 |
| 2023/2024 | 10,625 | 229 |
| 2024/2025 | 10,492 | 233 |
| Year | Capital allocated by DfT | Total capital spend | Revenue spend | Preventative maintenance | Reactive maintenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/2026 | £25,011,000 | £29,833,320 | £2,748,200 | 90% | 10% |
| 2024/2025 | £18,459,000 | £23,179,296 | £2,019,503 | 86.5% | 13.5% |
| 2023/2024 | £21,373,000 | £27,386,123 | £1,771,842 | 82% | 18% |
| 2022/2023 | £16,391,000 | £19,950,861 | £1,878,539 | 82% | 18% |
| 2021/2022 | £16,391,000 | £18,104,730 | £1,583,835 | 86% | 14% |
| 2020/2021 | £20,483,615 | £16,152,568 | £1,181,694 | 85% | 15% |
Notes:
All local authority capital funding allocations provided by the DfT can be found on the Department for Transport’s website.
We regularly assess the condition of our roads to ensure they are safe and well-maintained.
Road condition assessments on the local classified road network in England are currently made using Surface Condition Assessment for the National Network of Roads (SCANNER) laser-based technology. A number of parameters measured in these surveys are used to produce a road condition indicator which is grouped into three condition categories:
From 2026/2027, a new methodology based on the BSI PAS2161 standard will be used. This new standard will categorise roads into 5 categories instead of three to help the government gain a more detailed understanding of road condition in England.
Here is a summary of the condition of our roads over the past 5 years:
| Year | Red | Amber | Green |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2.6% | 20.93% | 71.88% |
| 2021 | 2.1% | 17% | 81% |
| 2022 | 3.11% | 24% | 72% |
| 2023 | 2% | 17% | 81% |
| 2024 | 2.2% | 22.5% | 75.3% |
We collect data on A roads annually using SCANNER laser-based technology.
| Year | Red | Amber | Green |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 3.41% | 32.59% | 62% |
| 2021 | 5.6% | 29% | 65% |
| 2022 | 13.31% | B-class road: 31.2% and C-class road: 34.2% | B-class road: 60.38% and C-class road: 48.9% |
| 2023 | 6.58% | 26.56% | 66.86% |
| 2024 | 5.93% | 28% | 66% |
Data for B and C-class roads is collected annually. The 2022 figures reflect a more detailed breakdown due to the survey technology used (non-SCANNER).
| Year | Red |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 12.81% |
| 2021 | 12.8% |
| 2022 | 25% |
| 2023 | 11.79% |
| 2024 | 12% |
We assess our unclassified roads periodically to assess condition, supplemented by our annual inspection programme which ensures they meet appropriate safety standards.
The council has developed a comprehensive Highways Asset Management Policy and Strategy aligned with the priorities set out in the Dorset Council Plan. Our approach focuses on several key areas:
Our Highways Asset Management Plan (HAMP) is linked to the Local Transport Plan and Local Plan, ensuring a cohesive strategy for future infrastructure development. We conduct detailed asset appraisals to understand the condition of our assets and identify investment needs across different scenarios.
Regular monitoring and review through performance indicators, benchmarking, audits, and stakeholder feedback ensure the effectiveness of our services.
Dorset Highways is committed to following best practices, and delivering innovation and efficiency in our operations:
By focusing on these areas, we aim to deliver a high-quality, efficient, and sustainable highway maintenance service that supports the overall goals of the Dorset Council Plan (2024 to 2029).
During the 2025/26 fiscal year, Dorset Council’s provisional highway’s structural maintenance programme will aim to:
These works form part of our ongoing commitment to maintaining a safe, resilient, and efficient transport network across Dorset.
All scheduled highway works can be found on the roadworks map.
The council's permit scheme is in its fifth year. The scheme was introduced in January 2020 and is based on the Traffic Management Act 2004 and related regulations. It applies to all roadworks on public streets in the county.
The permit scheme has significantly reduced disruption. While the scheme has stabilised since its introduction, minor improvements can still be made. Increases in permit fees should help make the scheme more cost-effective in the future.
There were 224 instances of collaborative working, which is lower than last year but higher than the first year of the scheme.
One of our key objectives as a highways service is to reduce carbon emissions linked to highway maintenance activities and transport. We aim to achieve this by:
To address the risks our network faces from the changing climate and to enhance resilience, we are:
Our strategic approach to managing these assets is set out in several key documents:
Further information on our strategic approach to managing highways infrastructure and the approaches and treatments used for highway maintenance can be found on our highways strategy and maintenance page.
