Drivers across Hampshire can expect to see more road repairs and resurfacing work taking place over the coming months after Hampshire County Council announced a £15 million investment in highway maintenance.
The funding will support a programme of planned maintenance and reactive repairs throughout the summer, following significant deterioration to the county’s roads during the winter as a result of prolonged adverse weather.
As part of the investment, the council will deliver 35 resurfacing schemes on some of Hampshire’s most damaged roads. By the end of the year, a total of 113 resurfacing projects are expected to have been completed, covering almost 40 miles of highway.
Additional surface treatment works are also planned, with 139 schemes scheduled for completion across more than 129 miles of road during 2026. Since April, 102 locations have already benefited from preventative maintenance, with the extra funding allowing further sites to be added to the programme.
The council is also deploying additional repair teams to carry out patching works, replacing damaged sections of road where potholes, cracking, rutting and surface failures have occurred. These targeted repairs help restore road surfaces without the need for full resurfacing.
The announcement follows a year in which around 90,000 potholes and other road defects were repaired across Hampshire.
Councillor Steve Forster, Hampshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways and Passenger Transport, said making the most of the warmer, drier months was key to improving the county’s roads and helping them withstand future damage.
He said the council’s highways teams were working around the clock to strengthen the network while continuing to respond to new defects as they appeared. Despite the challenges, he said the authority was doing everything possible with the resources currently available.
Councillor Forster also warned that years of underinvestment in national highways funding, coupled with rising costs, inflation, heavier vehicles and increasingly severe weather, were placing growing pressure on local road networks.
He revealed that Hampshire’s highway maintenance backlog is now estimated to exceed £550 million and has continued to grow over the past two years because of insufficient national funding.
The council has renewed its call to the Government for long-term investment in local roads, warning that without a significant increase in funding it will be difficult to deliver the resilient, high-quality road network that residents and businesses expect.
Road maintenance and surface treatment works will continue throughout the summer and into the autumn, with schemes prioritised using condition data to ensure funding is directed towards the roads most in need of improvement.
Residents can view planned road closures via the One.Network website and report potholes or other road defects through Hampshire County Council’s website or the OurHants app.