How we prevent potholes

Legend panel

The map has a legend panel which is open as default on the right hand-side. The legend shows a summary of the information shown on the map.

The legend includes:

• Potholes
  • Repaired
  • Ordered
• Boundaries
  • Cambridgeshire
• Base maps
  • OS Colour
  • OS Light
  • Aerial

To hide the legend, click the arrow on the legend top left corner.

To show the legend, click the icon with a zigzag and two straight lines.

Change information shown on map

Click the checkbox next to the option listed in the legend panel to show or hide details.

Potholes repaired shows work that has been completed at the defect site.

Potholes ordered are for defect sites that have been identified and an order for the work raised. It is waiting for repair by our contractor.

Boundaries Cambridgeshire shows a dark, thick line around the county boundary.

Pothole markers on map

The map shows potholes as circle markers.

To find out the number of completed or ordered potholes in that area, click the circle marker shown. A text box will show. Click the X to close box.

Zoom in and out

You can zoom in and out of the map by clicking the plus and minus sign shown at the bottom of map window on the right hand-side.

On a touch screen device, you can pinch fingers in and out.

If you are viewing map on a desktop you will see a toggle to full screen function under the plus minus signs.

Locate an area

A search bar is located at the top of the map. Enter an address or postcode. The results will filter as you type. You can also click and drag directly inside the map window.

Change map base format

The base view of map, or background, can be shown in three formats; OS colour, OS Light, and Aerial. The default is OS Colour. Base formats are listed on the map legend under the heading Base maps. Use radio buttons to change.

During winter, roads take a real beating. Water seeps into tiny cracks in the road surface, then freezes when temperatures drop.

As the water freezes, it expands, forcing the cracks wider. When it thaws, the surface is left weaker and repeated freeze–thaw cycles eventually cause pieces of road to break away and form potholes.

Add to that:

• Heavy rainfall, which speeds up wear and tear
• Traffic and heavy vehicles, which put extra pressure on weakened road surfaces
• An ageing road network which has evolved over time, much of it built decades ago and not to modern design standards, that’s more prone to breaking up

This happens every year, but it is more noticeable after wet and cold spells, which is why pothole numbers tend to peak peak during winter or bad weather.

The good news is that this is exactly why we are increasing inspections and repair crews during winter and early spring, focusing first on the worst stretches of road to keep people moving safely.

If we placed all of Cambridgeshire’s roads end to end, they would stretch from the UK all the way to the east coast of America; around 2900 miles.

We are investing as much as we can in road maintenance whilst also maintaining our other highway assets such as footways and bridges. In the past three years we have invested an extra £20m each year in addition to that provided by government. Unfortunately, we do not have enough funding to resurface all Cambridgeshire’s roads to stop potholes from forming. This means potholes will still happen, and when they do we will fix them in line with our policies.

More information on the state of our roads can be found on how we are improving highways maintenance.

We don’t carry out repairs in heavy rain, but once a repair is finished, rain won’t affect how long it lasts.

The time it takes to fix a pothole can vary. Firstly, it depends on how the officers have assessed the risk. The assessment outcome means it could be repaired within 2hrs, 5 days, 21 days or 13 weeks.

Some locations are hard to plan for. Consent from other third-party organisations may be needed before we can do the work.

There may be other work already taking place on the network that we have to wait to be finished. If this happens, we will always try to work together with others. We may make temporary repairs in the meantime.

Repairing potholes is not planned work. So, if many appear at once, we may not have enough permanent staff to keep up. This means we have to bring in extra temporary resources to meet the demand, and this can take time. We use this approach to work in the most efficient way because demand changes throughout the year and from year to year.

Yellow markings show that a pothole has been inspected and recorded for repair.

Marking a pothole does not always mean it will be repaired immediately, but it confirms work has been scheduled.

When a pothole is assessed, officers will identify any problems. If it meets our investigation levels or is unsafe for road users, they will order the needed work.

For more information on our investigation levels, please visit how long does it take to fix a road fault.

This approach follows national guidance. It helps us prioritise highway maintenance so we can keep roads safe.

We also invest in work that helps stop potholes from forming. These include surface treatments and resurfacing roads across the county.

We will always look to minimise the impact of our work wherever possible and give users as much notice as we can. However, as we often need to deliver urgent repairs to address a road safety concern this is not always possible.

Wherever possible we will seek to deliver work when the network is not as busy, either overnight or during outside of peak hours, such as between 9.30 am and 3.30 pm.

We are seeing a very high level of demand from utility companies and developers for space on the road network including an unprecedented level of requests for permits in and around Cambridge. You can find out about upcoming works via our Roadwork and traffic information - Roadworks and faults page.

We carry out regular quality inspections on a minimum of 5% of our completed pothole repairs. A sample of repairs is checked, and if issues are found, the contractor must return and fix them at no additional cost to the Council.

It is important to remember that some repairs are only temporary, and these will be marked with a yellow dot.

In addition to the repairs our Highway Officers check, we also visit sites to ensure our contractors are completing work to the required standard.

Pothole repairs can fail for a number of reasons, our first priority when delivering a repair is to make the road safe.

A pothole repair isn’t the same as undertaking a complete structural repair which may require a deeper more expensive treatment under different traffic management arrangements over a longer period of time.

Some of the reasons a pothole repair might fail are:

• Severe weather
• Heavy traffic
• Weak underlying road layers
• Deterioration of the surrounding material

Please report the failed repair . We will reassess and re‑order work where needed. Making clear that you are reporting a failed repair helps us to identify places where there may be underlying issues with the road. 

Whilst we will inspect a minimum of 5% of our completed pothole repairs, we are unable to inspect them all. If you see a repair you think has failed please report it to us and we will assess and action accordingly.  

Our repair teams work in live traffic environments, often in difficult weather and under time pressure. You can help keep them safe by:

• Respecting traffic management and temporary signals.
• Being patient if works cause short delays.
• Treating operatives with courtesy and kindness – they are there to keep the road safe for everyone.
• Avoiding confrontation or abuse, whether in person or online.

Our crews are doing challenging work on behalf of the community. A moment of patience and understanding makes a real difference to their safety and wellbeing and ensures we can deliver the repairs as quickly as possible.

Information about making a claim is available on our Making a highways claim page.

Each claim is assessed individually, based on whether we met our inspection and repair duties at the time.

Our repair times as identified can be found on How long does it take to fix a road fault.