An ambitious strategy which sets out how St Helens Borough Council will proactively manage, maintain, and invest in its highway and infrastructure network over the next five years was adopted at a Cabinet meeting this week.
The new Highways Infrastructure Asset Management Strategy has been developed following an announcement earlier this year that St Helens Borough is to receive more than £30m from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) over the next five-years to deliver local schemes, as part of the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement, helping to make journeys smoother, faster, greener and safer- whether you drive, walk, cycle, or use public transport.
With St Helens seen as a key focus area for public and private sector investment, Liverpool City Region investment in the borough includes £20m for high-quality walking and cycling infrastructure, and £10m to provide a new multimodal interchange in St Helens town centre as part of a transformative regeneration scheme.
Starting this year, the settlement will also go some way in ensuring residents see the improvements they expect on the borough’s roads, with a significant number of carriageway resurfacing works earmarked to add to the 43 schemes that were successfully completed last year across 27 locations around the borough.
Welcoming the report, Councillor Andy Bowden, St Helens Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, said: “As a council, we’re responsible for 484 miles of road and a further 553 miles of footways which I am determined to ensure are kept safe and in the best possible condition they can be.
“Where possible we will adopt a proactive and preventative approach to the maintenance of our highway network. This offers much better value for money to the public. We are also committed to ensuring that local businesses and contractors benefit from these works and will be holding a “meet the buyer” event in July to showcase the tendering opportunities that exist for local contractors.
“Our vision is to be a leading highway authority, efficiently managing, maintaining, and improving St Helens’ highways to ensure safe, reliable journeys and supporting economic growth.”
Read the strategy in full here: https://sthelens.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s132366/Appendix%201.pdf