Motorists have been warned that damage caused to Scotland’s roads by the recent freeze could take years to fully repair after it emerged many councils have already exhausted funds to cope with the ravages of winter.

A survey of Scotland’s 32 local authorities has found many are expecting their winter maintenance budgets, which cover emergencies such as gritting and snow clearance, to be double what they planned for and could rise to a national figure approaching £100 million.

The money set aside is generally expected to stretch until late March but many are already falling back on contingency cash or raiding other departmental budgets. However, the real cost to the public puirse of the harshest winter for nearly 50 years will only become clear in the weeks ahead when the extent of the damage begins to emerge.

Temperatures have been so low for so long that water in cracks in the roads is freezing and expanding, causing the surface to break apart, a process accelerated by the thaw and which could take until spring before becoming fully apparent.

A £1.8bn backlog of repairs already exists on Scotland’s road network, with the AA predicting a one-third increase in the number of potholes by the time winter subsides.

One source said: “Even if the damage to the roads is 10% more than previously, that’s 10% more money than we actually have. It would be disingenuous to say this will all be dealt with in the near future.”

Stewart Turner, head of roads at Argyll and Bute Council, is also a member of the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland, the professional body for the heads of roads in Scotland’s local authorities.

He added: “The pavements and roads have lifted by two or three inches in places. It’s probably the worst frost I’ve ever seen. We’re seeing potholes in bits of roads where we’ve never seen them before. No road is safe from them.

“It’s going to decimate our pothole budget very quickly. We’re definitely going to see an overspend.”

John Thomson, chairman of the municipal group with the Institution of Civil Engineers in Scotland, added: “This winter has been exceptional and the trends emerging regards damage to roads and footways are alarming.

“Roads maintenance is a key public priority yet conditions of our highways has not featured as a political priority in the last number of changes of government. Maybe the public view will now change that.”

Yesterday The Herald asked all of Scotland’s councils what their winter maintenance budgets had been set at and what they believed the eventual total to be. Twenty-five authorities that responded said they had budgeted for a total winter spend of about £40m. However, the actual spend based on projections offered by individual councils is more likely be in the region of £100m.

Glasgow’s budget is expected to rise from £1.5m to £4m, North Lanarkshire’s from £2.4m to £4.4m, West Lothian is predicting an overspend of almost £3.2m, more than double that spent in 2006/07, while East Ayrshire has spent £750,000 more than the £1m initially set aside.

A Glasgow spokesman said: “This kind of weather does have a knock-on effect in terms of integrity of road surfaces. Current budgets effectively give us a standstill position on the overall job of maintaining 1800km of roads and 3500kms of footways. If we have a worsening position this year it will be difficult to maintain that.”