Highways Bulletin: £7 Million of Improvements to Surrey’s Roads

Published on: 20 Sep, 2026
Updated on: 20 Sep, 2026

The information for this bulletin comes from Surrey County Council and is written by them.

Report potholes and highway issues here.

How Surrey’s roads have had a £7million makeover

More than 45 miles of some of Surrey’s busiest roads have been treated using surface dressing this year – a cost-effective and environmentally friendly maintenance method that improves road safety and can extend the life of roads by more than ten years. 63 roads across Surrey have benefited from surface dressing.

What is surface dressing?

Surface dressing involves spraying bitumen binder (a sticky tar-like substance) on a clean, dry road surface, over which stone chippings are spread. The surface is rolled to embed the stones into the bitumen although some loose stones will remain on the road surface for about a week. The weight of vehicles passing over these loose stones will force them into the bitumen to finish the new road surface.

Follow up work once surface dressing has been completed includes putting cats’ eyes back onto the road surface as shown in the image below and line painting.

What are the advantages?

The method offers many advantages, including:

Sealing the road surface to keep out water to reduce deterioration of the road surface and prevent potholes forming
Restoring the necessary level of skid resistance to reduce skid-related traffic collisions
Enabling worn out road surfaces to last longer, increasing the time before structural maintenance is required, making this is a cost-effective approach
Minimising traffic disruption and congestion as large areas of roads can be treated in a single day.

An interactive map is available to help you see which roads near you were included in this year’s programme and which roads are being considered for treatment in future years.

For details of roadworks in the Guildford area please click here.