Feedback on Surface Dressing Programme 2025/26

Our city-wide Surface Dressing programme for 2025 - 2026 has now come to a close, and we welcome your feedback.

What is surface dressing?

Surface Dressing is a long established and proven highway maintenance technique classed as preventative maintenance.

The process involves an application of bitumen which is sprayed onto the existing surface, followed by a layer of stone chippings. The road is then re-opened, and vehicle traffic is used to help embed the chippings.

The second stage involves a site sweep and a second layer of bitumen which is sprayed on top, locking in the chips, and once cured, giving a black-top finish similar to a traditional resurface.

This treatment forms part of our adopted asset management approach, and it's vital we target these roads at the optimum time in their lifespan. This needs to happen before they deteriorate further where a far more costly and carbon-intrusive large scale resurfacing work would be required.

Prevention is cure, and by delivering large programmes of preventative maintenance at the right location, at the right time, we can seal our assets to stop deterioration and potholes from forming.

Where has surface dressing taken place within the 2025 - 2026 programme?

Examples of the larger surface dressing schemes undertaken in the 2025 - 2026 programme include the A6 Duffield Road, Uttoxeter Road and Breadsall Hill Top.

What feedback do we need?

We would like to hear from you if you have used any of the newly surface dressed roads and what your opinion of these are. For example has the road surface improved? Was the work undertaken in a timely manner? Your feedback will help us refine the way in which future work is done.

How you can give your feedback.

Please email the project team at Highways.Feedback@derby.gov.uk with any feedback on these surface dressing schemes, alternatively, you can write to us at:

Highway Asset and Management Team, Derby City Council, FREEPOST MID24259, Derby. DE1 2BR