We've been through a relatively harsh winter season with several snow events but now that the weather is warming up, our highways crews have stepped up their pothole repair programme to fix weather-related defects across the county.

The spring blitz is being supported by additional investment into maintenance. A total of £5 million will be invested in road repairs and fixing minor drainage issues.

Added to this, patching will take place ahead of surface dressing to more than 1.5 million square metres of road across the county.

Defects can be reported via www.staffordshire.gov.uk/ReportIt or the MyStaffs app.

Last month we told you that our Road Surface Treatment programme was due to begin.

Otherwise known as surface dressing, the works are now fully under way across the county. Works include repairing defects (potholes, ironwork, kerbs) ahead of the treatment, and you can see which roads are due to receive a surface treatment by visiting our Highway Programmes page below.

Surface dressing is used to preserve and extend the life of roads that are already in a reasonable condition. Usually, roads will have 3 surface treatments during their life, before eventually being replaced.

As you can see from the picture, crews have been out on the Crab Lane estate in Stafford carrying out surface dressing, and making the most of the dry and (relatively!) warm conditions.

Most of the work that we carry out on our roads around the county are very visible, from gritting, to pothole repairs, to gulley cleaning.

However, tucked away in a corner of Stafford is our highways laboratory, where technicians conduct on-site testing of materials that are used on our roads and pavements, making sure they comply with current standards and specifications.

Technicians test materials to do with road maintenance and resurfacing, check the quality of works done by other organisations on Staffordshire's roads, give advice and support, and help determine the success of innovations like the Thermal Road Repairs machine we trialled a few months ago.

The laboratory itself has been in operation for over 60 years, and is one of only six local-authority run highways laboratories in the country. 

More information about the highways laboratory can be found here. 

Picture Caption: Lead Technician Mark Chapman assesses road surface material.

The official end of our winter gritting season was 17th April this year. As we know, nature doesn't always conform to our timetables so with some very mild weather throughout April, our night-time gritting crews turned their attentions to normal, day-to-day activities.

Crews have been carrying out a range of other duties during mild weather periods, such as repairing town centres, carrying out minor patching works, replacing and adjusting signage, and filling sandbags and grit bins ready for the next winter season.

They are still ready to roll if cold weather hits, and so far this year have used 21,369 tonnes of salt and treated 189,096 kilometres of highway. With spring in full flow, activities will turn more towards repair and maintenance as our gritting operations finish for the season.