WORK has started on a £450,000 project to improve roads in Whitby and district.
The roads to be treated are the A171 from Coquet Nook to Calais House, Greenhouses in Lealholm, Houlsyke to Furnace Farm, Furnace Farm to Shaw End and Shaw End to Glaisdale.
Work is also pencilled in at Fryup Gill, Egton to Blue Wath towards Rosedal
e, Key Green Egton Bridge, New Way to Crossley, Snowdon Nab Glaisdale, Diving Duck, Commondale – now a B&B, Christy Gate Westerdale and Lythe to Barnby crossroads.
David Creek, highways maintenance manager for the Whitby area, said that surface dressing, the method in use, protects the infra-structure for many years.
He said: "In the United Kingdom more than 60% of the road network has been surface dressed.
"It's rapid and cost effective. The treatment needs to be undertaken in spring and summer when the roads are warm and dry."
Mr Creek said the main benefits are it waterproofs the road structure; stops the road surface from breaking up under the action of traffic and weather; enhances skidding resistance, making the road safer; reduces spray from vehicle tyres in wet weather and is environmentally-friendly, using only a small amount of natural resources.
Overall costs of the process vary from site to site where differing treatments are appropriate and, for example, the extent of roadmarking or cats-eyes for replacement are necessary.
Typically other resurfacing treatments would cost around five times the cost of surface dressing.
The cost works out at between £1 and £2 per square metre compared with traditional methods that cost between £10 and £15 per square metre.
