Structural Maintenance of the Road Network

The Department for Infrastructure is responsible for maintaining all public roads and footways in a safe and serviceable condition. Structural maintenance is the collective term for activities which maintain the integrity of the road and footway structures which make up the network.  It comprises good value, planned maintenance activities such as resurfacing and surface dressing as well as less economic and efficient, reactive patching.  It also includes improvements to the rural road drainage system.   Since our last report of this area in 2002, the amount of funding required to maintain the road network in a steady state continues to exceed that which is spent. 

This report examines the Department’s current approach to structural maintenance of the road network, including:

• strategic planning relating to the structural maintenance of the road network;
• the structural maintenance budget, together with the balance and sources of funding relating to the structural maintenance of the road network; and
• the current condition of the road network.