In January 2017 the Department for Transport (DfT) made available £75m of Government investment (titled Highway Maintenance Challenge Fund) for essential highway maintenance which would make improvements for highway users. On 31 March 2017, Peterborough City Council, in partnership with Cambridgeshire County Council, submitted a joint bid (Tranche 2A) for the DfT Highway Maintenance Challenge Fund. The joint bid sought funding to use innovative methods to repair 65.61km of fen roads, split across each local authority area, and in doing so enhance the resilience of the rural road network against future weather events.
The DfT announced on 1 August 2017 that 19 schemes across the country (including the Council’s joint bid) had successfully received a share of the funding. The joint bid was awarded £3.5m (of the £5m requested) of which £1.19m was for Peterborough. As part of the bid, the Council committed to contributing a further £500k to the scheme from capital reserves, resulting in a package of works totalling £1.69m. As this is lower than the total amount originally bid for the volume of roads treated will be proportionally adjusted.
The Council intends to award a package of work under its existing contract with Skanska.