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Government of Jerseygov.je

Information and public services for the Island of Jersey

L'înformâtion et les sèrvices publyis pouor I'Île dé Jèrri

Road repairs and maintenance

Who is responsible to repair and maintain roads

The department of Infrastructure and Environment (IE) owns the main road network in Jersey and is responsible to maintain it.

By-roads are owned and maintained by parishes. Some other roads are privately owned by, for example:

  • Ports of Jersey
  • Jersey Property Holdings
  • housing associations

You can find out who owns or administers a road on the road information map.

Assessing roads for repair or maintenance

We maintain our roads in 2 ways:

  • planned maintenance
  • reactive maintenance 

Planned maintenance

We undertake a condition survey of the entire main road network every 3 years and develop a 5-year planned maintenance programme using the score.

You can find details of the next 5 year programme on planned highway maintenance.

Each road is given a condition score based on the condition of the carriageway. This determines the type of treatment needed to repair or maintain the road.

Condition score Treatment
RedReconstruction or resurfacing
AmberSurface treatment
YellowPatch repairs
GreenNo repair



When the repair or maintenance work can be done depends on, for example:

  • budget
  • traffic impact
  • planned utilities and developer works
  • location
  • proximity to other schemes and events

Reactive maintenance

We also have inspectors who regularly check all roads on the main road network.

They assess the carriageway between condition surveys or do extra inspections when issues are reported.

Issues our inspectors identify that need repair are fixed as reactive maintenance.

The inspection manual provides guidance on how they should carry out these inspections.

Highway Safety Inspection Manual​

Reporting road issues

Reconstruction

Reconstruction is used when the surface condition of the road and its foundations are beyond repair.

It requires the excavation and replacement of the entire carriageway and its foundations up to a depth of 240 millimetres.

It provides a new carriageway which will last for a long-time but it’s a long process which:

  • uses a large amount of material
  • creates lots of waste
  • requires lots of asphalt to be manufactured

It’s also extremely disruptive to road users, residents and businesses.

Reconstruction places a 5-year embargo on the carriageway. Find more information on embargo periods.

Resurfacing

We do resurfacing works when the road’s surface needs repair but its foundations are still in good condition.

Resurfacing requires the excavation and replacement of the carriageway’s surface course up to a depth of 50 millimetres. We undertake localised foundation repairs in advance of to remedy defect below the surface course.

If the road’s foundations are in a good condition resurfacing provides a new carriageway which will last for a long time. Compared to reconstruction, resurfacing uses up to 40% less material and creates up to 40% less waste. It also reduces disruption for road users and businesses.

Resurfacing places a 3-year embargo on the carriageway. Find more information on embargo periods.

Surface treatments

Surface treatments are used when the condition of the carriageway starts to decline. In Jersey we use micro asphalt as the main surface treatment.

It’s a very quick process and reduces the impact on road users, residents, and businesses. Surface treatments use between 6% to 15% of the material reconstruction uses and produces minimal waste.

It’s used to prevent water from entering the carriageway and renew its surface texture which:

  • extends the life duration of the carriageway
  • saves costs and materials
  • produces minimal waste
  • reduces disruption

For this type of repair we lay an aggregate on top of the existing surface. This is made of a specialist bituminous emulsion and is 15 millimetres deep.

Surface treatments put a 3 years embargo on the carriageway. Find more information on embargo periods.

We can also undertake localised patching in advance of surface treatments to correct defects with the carriageway foundations.

Micro asphalt takes less time to lay and extends the life of the existing road surface. Before we apply the micro asphalt, we use patches and panels to rebuild any small areas of the road.

 

Patch repairs

Patch repairs are quick and inexpensive. These are often used to fix small areas or sections which do not need a full surface maintenance. This is often used for potholes.

This is a reactive activity when we identify issues with the road condition outside of our planned maintenance or an issue is reported.

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