South Lanarkshire roads are to benefit from £19m of investment this year, with a specific focus on resurfacing residential areas, according to the Council.

Launched in 2008, South Lanarkshire Council's £126m Roads Investment Programme set out to improve 80% of the council-controlled road network.

Although originally scheduled to last for nine years, the scheme was extended for another two years, to 2019.

In all, the council has responsibility for 2287km of road network (1193km in towns and villages, 1094km in countryside). The network it the council’s biggest single asset, valued at around £3.2bn. There are 290km of A class roads, 250km of B class roads, 407km of C class roads and 1340km of unclassified roads that the council maintain.

Councillor Chris Thompson, chair of the council’s Enterprise Services Committee, said: "The first few years of the Roads Investment Programme has allowed us to concentrate on improving our main roads. That is where our main focus has been and I hope people travelling on our roads will really notice the difference. Over the next few years the focus will shift towards our residential routes, although main routes will still of course be resurfaced as well.


"Residential routes tend to be the ones we get the most complaints about, but I am confident this change in focus will lead to an improvement in their condition. We do of course have to thank the public for their patience during any essential road works and we always do everything we can to minimise disruption. We would ask people to remember that although there may be some short-term inconvenience, resurfaced roads have long-term benefits for everyone who use them."

In the Hamilton area, a number of schemes will go ahead over the next few months, while over £180,000 will be spent resurfacing the A724 Burnbank Road/High Blantyre Road.

Silvertonhill Avenue will benefit from £140,000 of road resurfacing and roughly the same amount will be spent on footway resurfacing at Wordsworth Way, McPherson Drive and Whiteloans in Bothwell.

Substantial works costing more than £240,000 are nearing completion at Machan Road in Larkhall.

In the Cambuslang area, more work will be carried out on Hamilton Road, near Drumsagard roundabout. The £140,000 project will continue from work carried out on other sections of the road in 2013.

A number of residential roads in East Kilbride will undergo carriageway resurfacing works, specifically around the Tewkesbury Road area. This includes Kennilworth, Waverley and Morland and the total cost of the works are £265,000.

The A726 Strathaven Road will be resurfaced close to the Calderglen Park entrance at a cost of £200,000.

In Clydesdale, carriageway resurfacing works have been carried out on the New Lanark Road at a cost of £750,000.

Other schemes scheduled to take place in the coming months are on the B7018 Dillarburn to Lesmahagow road, with the works costing £152,000. New Trows Road will also be resurfaced at a cost of £130,000.

Carriageway and resurfacing works will take place in the Crawforddyke area of Carluke, at a cost of around £200,000 and on the west end of Lampits Road at a cost of £160,000.

(IT)