Debate contribution: Road Maintenance: Potholes
Debate contribution by Ms Liz Kimmins on .
- MLA
- Ms Liz Kimmins
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 13 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Road Maintenance: Potholes
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5789807
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The £816,000 major resurfacing scheme on the Ballyrobin Road is a clear example of the significant investment that is being made in order to improve the condition and resilience of our road network. I recognise the importance of maintaining and improving that valuable asset. A considerable volume of repairs and resurfacing work has already been done. We all want our roads to be better. To achieve that, we must be ambitious and innovative in equal measure, using the resources that we have in a more targeted and effective way. The Member will be aware that the new road maintenance strategy was published on 27 July this year, and it sets out how we can get there. We are moving in a new direction: one that will lead to a better quality of maintenance and longer-lasting repairs. That is certainly my focus and priority. We will harness the latest technology to target resources at where they are needed most in order to deliver the best value for public money. We have around 26,000 kilometres of roads across the network, so there is no quick fix for addressing every defect on every road. There will always be a need for reactive maintenance to ensure that roads are kept as safe as is reasonably possible and to address defects that do occur. I have put a particular focus in the strategy on preventative measures, which involve intervening in a more planned way in order to improve a road's structural integrity. Those measures are capital-funded.
The three key principles at the heart of that strategy, which are aimed at taking that preventative approach, are: higher-quality maintenance; more timely and durable interventions; and better targeting of work where it is needed most. That is supported by new technology, including the full digital survey of the road network. Work is ongoing to assess the survey data so that the Department has a detailed baseline of the condition of the network in its entirety, which will help to identify were problems are most severe; where deterioration is emerging; and where intervention, taken at the right time, may prevent more costly repairs being needed later. The strategy also embeds environmental and financial sustainability into our approach. That preventative maintenance will enable better long-term targeting of funding, and I hope that Members will start to see the benefits of it in the not-so-distant future.
395 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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