How highways are maintained

The public highway consists of:

• bridges
• cycleways
• pavements
• public rights of way
• roads
• verges

We are not responsible for:

• trunk roads 
• private roads

We carry out regular safety inspections of the highway network to find defects. When we find them, we try to fix them or make it safe within an appropriate timescale.

Defects can occur at any time and it would be impossible to repair them as soon as they appear.

Most inspections are carried out either:

• from a slow moving vehicle
• as a footway inspection (a mix of driven and walked inspections)

We don't routinely inspect unsurfaced roads (green lanes), because they're used by:

• limited vehicular traffic
• equestrians
• pedestrians

Budgets for the maintenance of low-use routes are limited. We complete inspection and some maintenance following reports from the public.

Our role as a Highway Authority

We have to fulfil a number of statutory duties in our role as Highway Authority for these roads. Many of these are contained in the Highways Act 1980.

Roads that need repairing by Suffolk Highways are identified based on: 

• regular inspections
• annual surveys using specialist equipment
• reports from councillors, parish councils and community groups
• reports from residents

If you're planning works which could affect the highway, read about temporary road closures and diversions and bridges.