Published: Thursday, 10th December, 2009 9:00am

Running out of road

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The condition of Fermanagh's roads was put under the spotlight last week when it was revealed 49 per cent of the trunk road network in the county has a residual life of less than five years.

Figures released by DRD Roads Service at a special meeting in Enniskillen also revealed that resurfacing of minor roads, which make up about 10,000 miles (15,000km) across Northern Ireland happens once in every 187 years.

SDLP Regional Development spokesperson Tommy Gallagher who was present at the meeting last Wednesday said this figure could be even higher in Fermanagh, "If we take the current spending per year looking at the stretch of road to be done that's the way the figures works out," he said.

The Fermanagh/South Tyrone MLA said unless the Executive invests now, the state of our roads will deteriorate beyond a point of no return. "We learned some startling facts from senior Roads Service personnel. Given the current budget, resurfacing of our minor roads will happen once in every 187 years. These minor roads make up 15,000 kilometres of the Northern Ireland total of 16,000 miles (25,000km) of road, 60 per cent of our total road network on which the vast bulk of our rural population depends every day."

He said DRD is now spending almost as much on patching as it is on structural maintenance. "For the year 2008-09 the total spend on structural maintenance of all roads was £24 million and a further £19 million was spent on patching - a very short-term measure."

Mr Gallagher continued, "We are heading for a roads disaster which will have a major negative impact on our economy, not to mention road safety. Even in a recession, roads must have a higher funding priority for the good of our whole society. The Executive cannot make the economy our big thing while at the same time ignoring the crisis for our entire roads structure."

Lack of executive funding for roads maintenance and the ever-increasing amount of traffic has put serious pressure on our roads leaving many to crumble away before our very eyes.