We look after Manchester’s roads, pavements, cycleways, bridges, drains and streetlights.
This page gives you a quick summary of how we maintain them, what has improved, and what work is planned for 2026/27.
What we look after
- over 1,400 km of roads
- over 2,600 km of pavements
- over 250 km of cycleways
- more than 350 bridges and structures
- over 120,000 drains
- over 50,000 lighting columns.
Looking after a network this size takes careful planning and investment.
Many roads are getting older. Busy roads wear out more quickly. Heavy rain and extreme weather can also damage roads and drains.
How we spend money
We use two main types of funding:
- Capital investment: money for major improvement projects. This includes resurfacing roads, repairing bridges and improving drainage.
- Revenue funding: money for day-to-day maintenance. Such as filling potholes, clearing snow, replacing road markings and small drainage repairs.
We expect to spend £36 million on highway maintenance in 2026/27.
Since 2017, we have invested more than £165 million in Manchester’s highways. This money has helped improve roads, pavements, bridges and drainage systems.
Are Manchester’s roads getting better?
Yes. The condition of Manchester’s roads has improved since 2017.
In 2017, 25% of roads were in poor or very poor condition. By 2025, this had reduced to about 11%.
Most investment has focused on roads. Pavements are now a bigger priority. We also plan to invest more in local and neighbourhood roads.
What we're doing about potholes
We use a mix of planned maintenance and reactive repairs.
Planned maintenance helps stop potholes forming. We do this by resurfacing roads, improving drainage and checking road conditions regularly.
In 2025/26, we filled:
- 7,028 potholes on roads
- around 2,955 potholes on pavements.
More than 90% were repaired within the required timescales.
Each pothole is assessed based on the risk it could cause. The most serious problems are dealt with first.
What we're doing in 2026/27
We plan to carry out:
- 28 km of road resurfacing
- 32,000 square metres of large patching
- 34 km of preventative road surface treatments
- 85 km of pavement treatments.
This work will help keep roads and pavements in better condition for longer.
It should also reduce the need for costly repairs in future.
We use inspections, road condition data, safety information and local feedback to decide where work is most needed.
We target different wards each year to make the best use of our funding. As a result, some wards may have little or no planned road or pavement maintenance in a particular year.
Take a look at the road and pavement works we have planned:
How we listen to you
We use your feedback to help plan our work. We also talk to local communities and councillors to make sure we're meeting local needs.
If you need to report a problem with a road or pavement, visit Road and pavement problems.