Sheffield’s roads among worst in country for number of roadworks

Motor finance firm Moneybarn says an investigation it carried out using Freedom of Information requests revealed the city has seen just under 85,000 separate roadworks over the period.

The firm says the number placed Sheffield second only to Herefordshire, which had 105,614.

The firm’s report said: “Sheffield had just under 85,000 separate roadworks in the past two years which makes it the roadwork capital city of the country. Within the city council boundaries of the Steel City, there were 44,677 roadworks in 2020/21, the longest of which took 19 days to complete. This is slightly higher than in 2019/20 when 39,910 works were carried out.”

Sheffield Council said the figures included ‘reactive’ roadworks such as repairing individual potholes or kerbstones, not just large roadwork schemes, and showed an all-encompassing representation of works undertaken and reports responded to.

Executive member for housing, roads and waste management at Sheffield City Council, Councillor Paul Wood said roadworks were vital to ensuring Sheffield continued to evolve and develop and had an infrastructure which supported the economic growth of the city.

As well as ongoing maintenance and improvement works being undertaken as part of the city’s Streets Ahead programme, there were a number of road improvement schemes underway that would help transform the city’s highways, particularly in and around the city centre such as Heart of the City and Connecting Sheffield.

He said: “Investment in our highways today will help future proof our city, secure inward investment and improve journey experience and satisfaction for those who live, work and travel in our city.

“As well as the many schemes taking place to improve the condition and layout of our street scene, we are also proud to be working with a number of telecoms companies to roll out Superfast Fibre services across Sheffield.

“This will help improve and enhance connectivity, bring our communities up to speed and create new opportunities for people to connect with loved ones and businesses to maximise their potential.

“We know that roadworks can sometimes be frustrating and we do all we can to reduce disruption whilst works are ongoing.”

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