I would like an estimate of how many teams you have around Devon dedicated to potholes in a general day and how many engineers are in each team.
This varies depending on the number of pothole repairs requiring attention and is managed by our contractor Milestone, the number of gangs can range from 20 up to 50. There is one engineer overseeing defect identification and repairs across the County supported by a team of 5.
Also, the repair teams seem to carry out one or two repairs at a given spot but ignore other potholes within a few metres or so of the ones they have repaired – presumably because they are not of the qualifying size. Surely it would make sense to repair any other potholes in a given stretch of road before they become worse, thus avoiding another repair visit a couple of weeks later. A prime example of this in Seaton is in Valley View Road where a couple of potholes outside the hospital entrance have been filled but a much larger pothole – just a few metres up the road outside the school entrance – has been ignored. Can you explain the reasoning behind this?
Under the terms of the contract the contractor will generally only repair defects supported by a task order. During busy periods where outstanding task orders are high the contractor will target only potholes supported by a task order and that meet criteria of the safety defect policy. Potholes that do not meet our safety policy criteria will be recorded for repair and may be repaired at a future date if time does not permit a repair when dealing with the safety pothole. Our preferred practice is to repair all defects at the time of visit but this is not always possible for the reasons given above. Larger repairs will be undertaken by a different gang if a patch is required. This is due to the gang having the appropriate plant and materials and the appropriate training.