Devon County Council has finally begun routine pothole repair work after the normal service was hit by emergency winter damage.
The council faced criticism last week when highways chief David Whitton told a cabinet meeting that the suspension of regular repairs had left £2.6 million underspend from last year's highway budget.
Now the Conservative-run authority has launched anew £7 million programme of work, targeting 250 sites.
Officials received £7 million of severe weather recovery funding to help with road repairs, as part of the £183.5 million made available by the Department for Transport.
The work includes surfacing and patching work, targeting mostly A and B roads.
Councillor Stuart Hughes, cabinet member for highways, said the cash would be "put to use where it can have most impact" but would not tackle every problem.
The council is also waiting for more money from the £168 million pothole grant.
Mr Whitton said last week that it had been "unwise" to send out teams to patch up surfaces during the wet and windy weather but pledged that any reported pothole would now be dealt with.
Labour councillor Jill Owen said the state of the roads and grass verges was "depressing, drab and awful".
