OVER 100 miles of roads have been resurfaced or treated across Gloucestershire this year, with a stronger focus on rural roads—including those in the Forest of Dean—planned for 2025/26.

Gloucestershire County Council has completed more than 130 resurfacing and surface dressing schemes in urban and rural areas, with teams working day and night to improve road conditions.

The council has pledged £100 million over four years to continue road improvements, with £10 million set aside for next year’s work. An extra £1 million was also spent this year to resurface five additional roads.

With winter causing further road damage, highways teams are carrying out urgent repairs while planning ahead for spring, when drier conditions allow for longer-lasting fixes.

From April 2025, a spray injection patching machine—twice as fast as a conventional team—will be deployed, alongside a Roadmender that uses recycled tyres to create a watertight road surface.

Since April 2024, over 51,000 urgent repairs, including pothole fixes, have been completed, with an additional 28,000 smaller potholes patched before they worsened.

Find and Fix teams are working daily across the county to identify and repair road defects before they become major safety concerns. The initiative aims to prevent minor damage from escalating, reducing the need for larger, more disruptive roadworks in the future.

Councillor Stephen Davies, Leader of Gloucestershire County Council, said: “We’re celebrating the big 100 and we’re not stopping there. We’re investing £100 million to improve more than 130 roads across more than 100 miles of our network. We’re racing to improve as many roads as possible and create better journeys for everyone in Gloucestershire.”

With a greater emphasis on rural roads in the coming year, local residents can expect increased investment in improving road conditions, ensuring safer and smoother journeys for local communities.