Over £200 million has been freed up for road maintenance and pothole repairs across England, as part of £6.6 billion in investment from the government over the next six years to improve local roads.

Some £151 million of this is to be used to reward examples of best practice by local authorities, funding that could be used to resurface over 1,000 miles of road.

There are also plans in place to help prevent potholes from forming in the future, with early stage research being funded to look into new surface materials and pothole repair techniques, like 3D printing.

To this end, the government also announced earlier this year that it would be providing £23 million for trials of new technologies in order to develop pothole-free roads. These technologies include recycling plastic waste into surfaces that are harder wearing, installing sensors to predict where issues might occur and kinetic energy to heat surfaces.

Chris Grayling, transport secretary, said: “Every motorist knows that the potholes have been a problem in the last few years. That is why the government is continuing to step up its funding to local authorities to address this. It is now up to highways authorities to innovate and use new technologies to solve the problem.”

When driving over potholes, you can protect your car by freewheeling over the holes in the road, driving slowly and by making no sudden turns or twists of the wheel. If you do find that you’ve gone over a bump a bit too hard and your car starts handling strangely, bring it into us here at The Auto Dr for car repairs in Reading.