Six companies awarded contracts totalling more than £20million to carry out highways work in West Sussex

The county council contracts for 2024/25 cover areas such as resurfacing and patching roads, reconstructing and resurfacing footpaths, drainage schemes, crossings and signals.

Landbuild Ltd will cover the Bus Services Improvement Plan, highway improvements, crossings and signals, drainage schemes, and highway structures.

FM Conway Ltd will be responsible for the resurfacing of principal and local roads as well as foot-way reconstruction/resurfacing other other small works.

Carriageway patching will fall to Associated Asphalt Contracting Ltd, surface dressing on principal/local Roads to Kier Highways Ltd, micro-asphalting of footpaths to JPCS Ltd and micro-asphalting on local roads to EuroviaInfrastructure Ltd.

The contracts totalled £20,129,420.18 and were approved by Matt Davey, assistant director (highways, transport & planning), on Wednesday (January 3).

The condition of the county’s roads has been an ongoing battle for the council.

Despite investing millions in carriageway resurfacing and treatments over the last few years, motorists have made thousands of claims against the authority for damage to their vehicles after falling foul of potholes.

Between 2018/19 and 2021/22, a total of 3,657 claims were made, 504 of which were settled with payments ranging from £13.39 to £19,278.

The payouts totalled £274,824.71 and were for vehicle damage and/or personal injury claims, with the latter including legal costs.

Hot summers followed by higher-than-average rainfall and extremely cold periods have contributed to an ‘unprecedented’ number of potholes and other problems on the roads.

More than 38,000 safety defects were reported over the past three years.

On the positive side, Crawley MP Henry Smith reported in November that the county council would receive a total of £4.3m from the government to help with resurfacing work.