The Mineral Products Association Northern Ireland (MPANI) has warned that Northern Ireland’s road network is now at a critical point, with dangerously low levels of maintenance funding and severe staff shortages within the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) threatening both road safety and the wider economy.
Recent assessments have revealed that the budget for essential road maintenance is now at its lowest level in decades — covering only a fraction of what is needed to maintain the network in a safe and serviceable condition. Local councils and contractors are reporting that resurfacing and defect repair programmes have been drastically scaled back or delayed, leaving communities and businesses facing deteriorating road surfaces and growing safety risks.
At the same time, DfI’s Transport & Roads Asset Management (TRAM) teams capacity to deliver essential maintenance work has been severely undermined by unprecedented staff shortages across engineering, inspection, and procurement teams. This is resulting in long delays to project approvals, slower emergency responses, and an increasing backlog of unrepaired defects.
Gordon Best, Regional Director of MPANI, said:
“The situation has reached breaking point. Years of underinvestment, combined with a loss of experienced staff, mean that our road network is literally crumbling faster than it can be repaired. The safety of road users, the efficiency of our transport system, and the competitiveness of our economy are all being put at risk.”
He continued:
“Well-maintained roads are vital for every aspect of daily life, from emergency services and school transport to freight, tourism, and rural access. Without urgent action from the Executive to restore adequate funding and rebuild delivery capacity within DfI, Northern Ireland faces a managed decline of its most important public asset now valued at some £40 billion.”
MPANI is calling for an immediate re-allocation of capital funding as part of the upcoming December Monitoring Round when ring fenced and non-ring fenced allocations for other capital projects that have not progressed, such as the A5, to ensure road maintenance budgets are restored to sustainable levels, alongside additional resources for a DfI workforce recovery plan to address critical vacancies and rebuild technical capability across the department.
The Association also warned that deferring essential maintenance is a false economy, with every £1 not spent on timely surface renewal costing up to £4 in future reconstruction and damage costs.
“We need to see leadership and urgency,” Mr Best added.
“Safe, reliable roads are not a luxury — they are the foundation of a functioning economy and a basic expectation of the public. The time for short-term cuts has long passed.”
MPANI PUBLICATION
Why Northern Ireland’s local roads are failing – and what’s at stake?
MPANI have produced a PDF flyer on the subject which can you the download from the link here, or view directly below using the built in viewer.
Notes to Editors
It is accepted that the condition of Northern Ireland’s roads is of vital
As identified in the 2010 Snaith Report, [https://mpani.org/?wpdmdl=1388] and 2019 Barton report, Review of the Structural Maintenance Funding Requirements for DfI Roads | Department for Infrastructure (infrastructure-ni.gov.uk) ‘planned maintenance of a proper magnitude is able to maintain a road network in a steady condition more cheaply than using reactive techniques or ultimately reconstruction’. The reports highlight that when there is a decline in the condition of the roads system and therefore an increasing rate of reactive patching this creates an increasing rate of public liability claims and, most importantly, an increasing level of backlog maintenance.
In the 2019 Barton report the level of backlog maintenance, was estimated at £1.2 billion and since then, we have only been maintaining the roads network to keep it as it is. Continued lack of funding for proper Roads Maintenance will only make this terrible situation worse and if proper funding is not made available NOW this will indeed lead to an even worsening vicious downwards spiral of even more money in the medium to long term being spent on poor value reactive maintenance and increasing public liability claims.
The Department for Infrastructure officials are currently delivering their annual reports to our local councils on what work has been done in the past 12 months and what the planned work lies ahead in terms of critical roads and structures. They do not make for good reading! Click on the links below to download and view reports issued to date.
- Armagh Banbridge Craigavon – Click Here
- Causeway Coast and Glens – Click Here
- Newry Mourne and Down – Click Here
- Mid and East Antrim – Click Here
- Ards and North Down – Click Here
Profile & Contacts
The Mineral Products Association NI represents approximately 95% of companies involved in the supply of quarry products to the Construction Industry in Northern Ireland. Our Association draws its membership from companies engaged in providing primary aggregates, the processing of recycled and secondary materials, the production of downstream products such as asphalt, lime mortar, ready-mixed concrete, precast concrete and road surfacing contracting. The Mineral Products Sector now employs over 3500 people across Northern Ireland and has a turnover of some £750 million.
For further information please contact Gordon Best, Regional Director, Mineral Products Association, Nutts Corner Business Park, Crumlin BT29 4SR Tel +44 (0) 28 9082 4078 Fax 028 90825103
Emai:
Mobile: +44 (0) 7876 136929