Councillors told why repair failed on Bridge Street

Fife Council apologised in December after attempted repairs to Bridge Street left it in an “even worse condition”.

It had been resurfaced - the traffic lights needed for the works also led to disruption and tailbacks on the busy road - but almost as soon as the job was finished large potholes and cracks in the road appeared.

The issue came up again when councillors asked if the weather had affected the pothole and patching performance in the Cowdenbeath committee area.

Gordon Henderson, the lead consultant for road network condition, told councillors: "There is no denying that the weather definitely has an impact. I'm not just talking about the rain but it being colder as well.

"Bridge Street has been quite high profile.

"I hope it's been communicated to councillors, I think it has, that it's been a particular material failure from the quarries as opposed to 'Oh the service had been out, they've resurfaced it, they've done it in poor conditions'.

"You could go out and resurface a road comfortably in these conditions right now, that's fine, same with potholes etc, it's just often this time of year in particular we will be receiving the highest volume, just by the nature of the weather.

"And sometimes it's just a case of making it safe and in the summer look to do the bigger, planned patching schemes."

At the time Councillor Darren Watt called the botched repair job on Bridge Street as a “disgrace and an embarrassment” and "completely unacceptable".

The council apologised and later said the material mix used was "out of specification" and the contractor, Hillhouse Group, had to lift and relay the surface again in January - at no extra cost to the taxpayer.

No sooner had the work been done than Scottish Water moved in and dug up part of the road for a separate scheme of works.

At the committee meeting last week Cllr Rosemary Liewald asked about the standard of repairs, highlighting a pothole on Woodend Road, outside the old Auchterderran school.

She said the whole stretch of road had been resurfaced a few years ago but defects kept reappearing.

Cllr Liewald went on: "That's one that's been repaired before. My concern is it's one you're going to have to keep coming back to fix it again."

Mr Henderson said: "You could be looking at a specific defect in the road, a pothole that could cause damage to a vehicle, and sometimes the best option, and I know it's something that we as a service will get flak for, is people seeing material just getting thrown into it as they know it will eventually break out.

"Something that we as a service need to develop, and the ARP (area roads programme) mapping system was touched on earlier, is to say this is what is happening here.

"Often when an infill is just put in there's a bigger, high quality patch that's due to come.

"But by the nature of the plant and the resource, it's easier for us just to come into an area and deal with all the P3s and P4s at that time.

"That's where we found the real efficiencies."