At 13,000km, Devon County Council has the largest road network of any local highway authority in England.
The road network consists of:
- 8% A Road – major roads providing large-scale transport links within or between areas
- 5% B Road – roads connecting different areas and feeding traffic between A roads and smaller roads on the network
- 35% C Road – smaller roads connecting unclassified roads with A and B roads
- 52% U Class – local roads for local traffic
Only 2,916 km of roads are categorised as urban with the remaining 77% serving local rural communities.
Roads of all types in Devon are heavily affected by seasonal variations in traffic volumes with flows increasing significantly during the summer months. This contributes to congestion, particularly on our principal routes, and increases carriageway deterioration on our minor roads.
The construction of Devon’s roads is diverse, ranging from designed roads constructed to modern standards to those that have evolved from historic tracks built up over the years from layers of different treatments. This presents challenges when managing the asset and maintaining the network in a safe and usable condition.
Devon County Council also has the largest local highway authority bridge stock in the UK at over 3,000 bridges and nearly 2,000 retaining walls. As well as modern bridges, masonry arch bridges represent the majority of highway structures, which also include 95 historic granite clapper (flat stone slab) bridges and a range of other historic listed bridges and scheduled monuments that require specialist knowledge to maintain.
Lengths of highway, footways and cycleways
| A road | B/C roads | U roads | Total roads | Footways | Other public rights of way | Cycleways |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,041km | 5,170km | 6,789km | 13,000km | 2,806km | 5,018km | 953km |
| Exeter to Turin, Italy | Exeter to New York, USA | Exeter to Florida, USA | One third of the circumference of the world | Exeter to Istanbul, Turkey | Further than the coastline of England | Lands End to John o’Groats |
Bridges and structures
| Bridges | Retaining walls |
|---|---|
| 3,079 | 1,723 113 km |
| Around seven times more bridges than there are in Venice | About the same length as Hadrian’s Wall (117.5km) |
Traffic signs and other traffic assets
| Traffic signs | Traffic signals | Street lighting |
|---|---|---|
| 250,000 | 417 | 80,393 |
Soft landscape and drainage
| Highway trees | Gullies |
|---|---|
| 345,000 | 212,742 |
| More water than 12 Olympic swimming pools |