A MULTI-million pound programme to improve 150 sites covering more than 200 miles of Somerset’s roads is due to start next week.

Surface dressing is a nationally-recognised maintenance technique for sealing a road, improving skid resistance and preventing water getting under the surface. It is crucial to help stop potholes forming.

It works by coating an existing road with bitumen, covering it with stone chippings and then rolling it.

Cllr John Woodman, Somerset County Council’s cabinet member for highways, said: “Surface dressing is an extremely important road maintenance technique as it allows us to reseal a tired road and significantly extend its life.

“Although surface dressing can receive bad press because it initially leaves loose chippings on the road, it is generally a lot quicker and less disruptive than conventional resurfacing and a great deal more cost-effective.”

Surface dressing teams are mobile and the work is dependent on dry weather, meaning the rolling programme is flexible and dates can change at short notice.

You can check which roads are included as part of this year’s programme, check provisional dates and find out more about surface dressing here.