Derry MLA calls for ‘common sense’ approach to road repairs

SDLP Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan has called for urgent reform in how road maintenance is funded, monitored and delivered.

Mr Durkan said the current reactive approach by the Department for Infrastructure is “costly, inefficient and unsafe,” leaving communities to deal with repeat repairs, dangerous driving conditions and mounting compensation payouts.

Mark H Durkan, MLA for Foyle commented: “In some areas, we are seeing the same roads patched again and again without any proper accounting of what that piecemeal approach is costing the public purse. On Strand Road in Derry alone, there have been around 400 repairs in five years yet no central record exists of the total cost.

"It’s total unacceptable that we don’t even know the true scale of waste. In other neglected areas such as Ballymagroarty and Creggan, there is no monitoring data available on the number of repairs carried out on these roads, particularly where contractors were involved.

“Over the past five years, pothole and road defect compensation claims have cost more than £25 million in payouts, rising to over £32 million when legal fees are included. For the sake of a shoe, the horse was lost, comes to mind. Instead of investing properly in preventative maintenance, we are paying out millions in compensation.”

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He continued: “I’m hopeful that the incoming Road Maintenance Strategy will deliver a more common sense approach to pothole repairs. At the moment maintenance staff called out to a specific area can only repair potholes which meet the requisite depth not the others, leaving repairs exposed and a near guarantee that overstretched, underpaid workers will be back out again and again to repair the same areas.

"This pennywise, pound foolish approach has exacerbated problems and budget pressures.

“We need to also look at innovation elsewhere; councils in other jurisdictions are exploring reinforced materials such as graphene-enhanced asphalt. This will make for longer-lasting repairs and reduced costs in the long term.

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“Our roads are not just inconvenient, at present they are unsafe. The time for patchwork repairs and monitoring-round top-ups is over. We need sustained, multi-year investment and full implementation of the Road Maintenance Strategy.”