Isle of Man Guide

Phil Gawne, Minister for Infrastructure has been explaining the Department’s shift in focus from larger road improvement schemes to improved maintenance of existing roads.

“The Department has had significantly reduced budgets in each of the last two years and we have some tough choices to make. We have decided that basic road maintenance must be our primary focus so we have cut our road improvements budget by nearly £1.7 million over the past two years so that the money can be transferred to highways maintenance where it can be better spent repairing our existing roads. In difficult financial circumstances it is important that people see their roads being fixed rather than money being spent on elaborate ‘improvement’ schemes.”

“That said we have retained a smaller budget for road safety schemes and relatively small targeted improvement projects. Clearly it is important to strike the right balance between maintenance and improvement given the very tight financial constraints under which we are currently operating.”

As will have been widely observed, the Department has previously reported that the islands roads have suffered extreme damage following the last two uncommonly severe winters. The Department has previously reported the immediate steps that have been taken and that a basic recovery of condition is in sight.

Taking stock of the damage, it is clear that many of the roads remain in a very fragile condition. Patching and pothole repair has been a vital short term measure as the Department’s first priority is to keep the roads safe. It is recognised however that such repairs do not last indefinitely and may be vulnerable to failure and also that many of the defects are due to the structural failure of the road and require more than basic patching or even full re-surfacing.

The Department also has a duty to investigate accidents and ensure that road layouts and signage are adjusted, particularly where regular accidents occur. It has successfully driven down accident numbers in recent years. However, given the generally poor condition of the roads, in the last few years it has scaled back on this improvement work in favour of routine maintenance.

Improvement budgets have already been reduced from £2.3M/annum to £920K/annum as a result of this change in priorities and the Department has recently decided to make a further adjustment in its priorities so reducing its improvement budget to £620k. The £300K released will be used to carry out more surface dressing work and will allow us to implement a £1M maintenance programme in 2011. This will be delivered by one of our private sector partners, Colas and we hope will be one of a number of projects that will help boost the wider economy.

Richard Pearson, Director of Highways said;

“Surface dressing is recognised as one of the most cost effective ways of slowing down the rate of deterioration if applied to the right road at the right time. It helps seal the road and prevent water ingress that can otherwise result in the total failure of the road in

The Department would like to remind people that defects can be reported via potholes@gov.im or by calling 686665.

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