The highway maintenance division of the Infrastructure Department has had its budget cut by about a quarter this year from £3 million to about £2.3 million.
The department bore the brunt of cost-cutting initiatives in the most recent Medium Term Financial Plan, which sets States spending until 2019.
Andy Downie, manager of highway maintenance, said his team were having to look for alternatives to traditional asphalt to keep roads in a drivable condition.
‘We are not keeping up with the rate that roads are degrading at at the moment. We need to have more money to keep up with it,’ he said.
Recently, the department completed the resurfacing of a one-mile stretch along Route d’Ebenezer in Trinity.
Instead of using asphalt, a UK company called Eurovia won a tendering process to lay a ‘micro-asphalt’ surface called Gripfibre.
The road was resurfaced in two weeks and it cost a ‘third of the price’ of traditional methods, Mr Downie said.
He added that if the department had used normal asphalt, the programme would have taken six weeks. The department would not disclose a figure for the cost of the work, as they say it was ‘commercially sensitive’.
Micro-asphalt has a life expectancy of between ten and 15 years, while traditional asphalt lasts
anywhere from 15 to 20 years.
And the alternative road surface has already been used in three other locations in Jersey: Mont Mado in St John, Mont Cochon and on Green Road in St Clement.
However, some Islanders have reacted angrily to the new surface – which is sprayed on over the top of existing asphalt.
Writing on social media one complainant said it ‘looks cheap, unfinished and feels terrible’. Others have claimed there is a drop between the road surface and areas around manhole covers.
The department say that the surface ‘provides great skid resistance’ and will ‘smooth out over time’. Mr Downie added that areas around manhole covers had been laid correctly.
He also said that if they did not use the surface, roads such as Route d’Ebenezer, which are not a high resurfacing priority, would likely be ignored.
‘We have to prioritise roads on what their condition is and what their importance is to the road network. If we didn’t use this product we may not have got round to it.
‘It is called preventative maintenance. It extends the life of a road surface and it saves us cash, which gives us a bigger budget for the more important roads.’
Asked if the motorists were going to see more micro-asphalt used in the Island, Mr Downie said: ‘Yes, we will use more of it going forward.
‘We have signed a contract with Eurovia for the next three years, and there is an option for an extra two years.’
Traditional asphalt will still be used on high-priority roads. So far this year 3.8 km of roads have been resurfaced using asphalt and 1.8 km using micro-asphalt.
