Experts estimate £96m to fix all of Glasgow's roads

Councillors had asked how much it would cost to fix every pothole in the city

Council civil engineers have estimated that repairing every flaw on Glasgow's road network would cost £96m.

The figure was emailed to councillors who had asked how much it would cost to fix all of the city's potholes.

Cities across Scotland have a backlog of repairs as road maintenance works were halted between April and July last year due to the pandemic.

Glasgow City Council insisted its roads were in a "consistently better" condition than the rest of Scotland.

It said it takes a "risk-based approach" to maintenance and roads were in a "fundamentally sound condition".

Glasgow's annual road budget fluctuates at around £12.9m and is influenced by the number of faults reported and the effects of weathering.

However the email, which was originally reported in the Glasgow Times, stated the current repair backlog figure was "circa £96m" and this one off investment would bring all the roads up to a "good " standard.

It said a further annual investment of "circa £10.6m" would be required to maintain the roads in this condition.

'Safe for all'

It comes after the city's annual report on the condition of its roads said the current investment for maintenance was £10.86m, whereas to achieve a "silver standard", a £30.4m spend was needed.

According to Fix My Street - an online service for mapping and reporting problems to councils - there are 5,392 potholes that have yet to be fixed in the city.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said the projected £96m figure highlighted the cost of repairing "every single defect" on the city's roads, "regardless of how small" they might be.

He said: "In Glasgow we take a risk-based approach to road maintenance, which ensures the network condition is assessed on an ongoing basis, the most dangerous faults are treated as a priority and durable repairs are completed at the first time of asking.

"Our approach to road maintenance helps to keep the city's road network in a fundamentally sound condition and safe for all road users."

"This approach also makes sure the condition of Glasgow's roads is consistently better than roads across the rest of the country."