Highway Maintenance Market Report – UK 2019-2023 – New Report from AMA

….. news, as expenditure on roads infrastructure increased by more than 22% in 2018, and this figure has been growing steadily for several years and has almost doubled from the previous four years.

Jane Tarver, Researcher and Editor at AMA Research sights that “Highways maintenance accounts for a significant percentage of UK infrastructure spending. It is generally recognised that sizeable investment is required to make the UK’s road network fit for purpose. Considerable investment is being directed to fix road problems such as potholes, a situation exacerbated by recent UK weather conditions.”

The Government continues to explore ways of bringing more private capital into road building. The Government has supported projects previously such as the expansion of Heathrow, however it is expected that the funding model for such is likely to undergo a variety of changes over the coming years. The Government’s budget announcement is set to be on the 11th March 2020 and it will be interesting to see to see how this plays out for the highway maintenance sector, as well as infrastructure as a whole, where previous capital expenditure on the national roads was the equivalent of 16% of the total spend by the Department for Transport.

It is known that environmental and sustainability considerations will need to play a greater role in future highways management and design. More consideration is also expected to be given towards sustainable forms of transport (e.g. cycling), as well as alternatively fuelled vehicles such as electric cars and the possible spread of driverless vehicles. This can only be exacerbated by the government’s pledge to be carbon neutral by 2050 as well as the banning of the sale of new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars in the UK being brought forward from 2040 to 2035.

The Highway Maintenance Market Report – UK 2019-2023 is available now and can be ordered here.