Hot weather, pothole callouts and more resilient roads
- robball6
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
The AA has released an update on its ongoing Pothole Index which records the number of pothole-related callouts that it responds to. It says that there has been a ‘shock increase’ in incidents in July 2025.
The AA suggests that the unusually hot July we experienced has led to more pothole incidents thanks to a few different factors: people driving on rural roads which they don’t know and which may be in worse condition; higher temperatures making work tyres more susceptible to damage; and heat stress worsening weakened roads.
However, the number of callouts has only risen by 2% from 49,081 in July 2024 to 50,091 in July 2025. And the number of incidents between January and July 2025 is down by 6.75% compared to the same period in 2024. This could be construed as good news.
Rising temperatures are not good news for roads though. The Met Office reported earlier last week that Summer 2025 could be one of the warmest on record. The UK’s mean temperature from 1 June to 17 August is 16.2°C, which is 1.6°C above the long-term meteorological average.  There is a caveat: with two weeks of August still to go, the mean could go down if temperatures take a plunge.
Heat waves can lead to higher rates of damage for road surfaces. Because they are black, they absorb the heat, raising their temperature far above that of the air; National Highways has reported temperatures of up to 50 degrees C in its road surfaces.
Although high-speed roads are usually laid with mixes containing polymer modified bitumen (PMB), which means the asphalt is unlikely to become soft or melt at very high temperatures, local roads can suffer. For instance, this year, residents in Cannock, Staffordshire were up in arms when a recently laid road surface melted and attached itself to their tyres.
Staffordshire County Council reported that it was applying granite dust to the road to counter the problem. Meanwhile, in July Central Bedfordshire Council was making pre-emptive strikes by sending out its gritters to spread a fine layer of crushed stone over the road to counter softening surfaces and provide extra grip.
The continent experienced more severe heat than the UK during July, leading to issues on some roads. In France, some road authorities – such as those in Haute-Saône, in Burgundy Franche-Comté – have a novel approach to reducing the risk of melting roads: they spread limestone dust over it which also makes the road white so that it reflects rather than absorbs heat.
Statistics aside, trends towards more severe peaks in summer temperatures due to climate change, are creating a whole new set of challenges for road authorities. The current cost of PMB means that it isn’t viable to use it in mixes for every road.
In the short term, councils will have to find other ways, such as those mentioned above, to keep drivers safe. In the longer term, we must look to the bitumen technologists to come up with more cost-effective solutions for road surfaces that can cope with the heat.
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