Suffolk County Council has agreed to use £10m from its reserves to fund three million square metres of new road surfacing.
The programme, to be completed before September, will deliver three times the usual amount of new surface dressing in a bid to avoid potholes forming in the future.
The work will cover nearly 10% of the county's road network, with a particular focus on rural roads.
The council's cabinet member for highways and transport, cllr James Finch, said: 'This year’s major investment is about giving ourselves the opportunity to get ahead with our maintenance schedule of works so we can make long term savings and maintain the network for longer, instead of having to carry out repeated short term patch repairs.'
He added: 'This work is only one part of the continued investment we are making in Suffolk’s road network and infrastructure. Suffolk was recently given £1.38m of funding towards pothole repair and we are currently looking at how best to use this funding, with a particular focus on unclassified roads in the county.'