Resilient Highway Network
The Department for Transport has recommended that all Highway Authorities identify a 'resilient network' in order to give priority to maintaining economic activity and access to key services during extreme weather.
A Resilient Highway Network may be defined as the portion of a local authority's highway network that is absolutely vital to maintaining economic activity and access to key services during extreme weather emergencies and other major incidents. It is not designed to link every community in Sunderland. The purpose of defining such a network is to identify the most critical routes (and associated highways assets, such as bridges and drainage systems) so that planned whole asset maintenance on that part of the network may be prioritised. In doing so, we can ensure that our defined Resilient Highway Network is less prone to failure and in turn improve the council's resilience to extreme weather events, industrial action and major incidents.
The below report and map detail the Resilient Highway Network as adopted by Sunderland Council. A review was undertaken in 2021-22.