West Lothian’s road network will undergo a multi-million investment programme in the coming years.
The council will continue to invest in West Lothian’s growing road and footpath network, including town centre street improvements, bridges and street lightening, with over £53 million to be invested by 2028.
Some £10 million will be invested between April 2021 and March 2022 and an additional £750,000 will be spent next year alone on repairing potholes. This includes potholes that the council’s team have on their planned list of work already and newly-reported potholes.
A large number of roads will be upgraded across West Lothian, but significant projects in 2021/22 include Blaeberryhill Road in Whitburn, Edinburgh Road in Bathgate
Linlithgow High Street, Mayfield Drive in Armadale and Station Road in Armadale, Longridge Road (A706), Whitburn (Dixon Terrace to Croftmalloch), A71 – West End, Main Street, East End, West Calder, Station Road, Addiewell, Thymebank, Ladywell, B792 – Addiewell to Tennants March, West Calder and B708 – Lower Bathville.
Tom Conn, executive councillor for the environment, said: “We are delighted that our capital programme has been approved and our teams can continue to progress with improving local services.
“Each year the council spends millions of pounds upgrading and maintaining the local road network. Since the ten-year capital programme was approved in 2012, over £61 million has been spent upgrading our roads and paths.
“Overall, West Lothian currently has one of the best maintained road networks in Scotland but there is always room for improvement.
“We do appreciate road improvements are one of the most talked about services we provide. The fact is that potholes and road works are inevitable, and occur on all roads at some point, in every local authority.
“Work on repair and maintenance never ends and our teams continually work on these projects. We always try to improve what we have and that’s why an additional £750,000 will be spent next year alone on repairing potholes. This includes potholes that our team have on their planned list of work already, and new potholes that are reported to us.
“What we’d also emphasis to customers is that we can’t check every square metre of roads at all times so if there’s an issue in your street or path, please do report them to the council. We know how popular our online reporting form is for road defects and potholes. That has helped us receive more detailed information from customers and allowed customers to inform us more easily.”
As part of the £53 million package, £4.8 million will be spend on flood prevention work in Broxburn, the River Almond and Bathgate while £845,000 allocated for town centres improvements.
£16 million will be spent on road lighting works and a further £7 million will be invested in maintaining and upgrading bridges during this time.
There will also be investment in cycle ways including the Armadale to Whitburn cycle way and footpath/active travel improvements in Bathgate and West Calder.
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