The condition of our roads is highly dependent on the effects of weather. Unfortunately, Dumfries and Galloway has recently experienced a prolonged period of extreme weather, including heavy rain, high winds and flooding. This had a significant impact on our region’s roads, causing significant further damage to road surfaces across our region, and hampered our ongoing roads maintenance programme.
However, as soon as conditions allowed, the Council’s complement of inspectors and technical staff were deployed across the region to assess the damage on routes and structures. Damage has been identified and prioritised, emergency repairs took place immediately, along with clearing landslips and debris and opening roads as soon as possible. Other priority repairs were programmed and actioned throughout January. The Council is now continuing with a schedule of work to be done to deal with the aftermath of the storms. All available resources have been engaged, along with additional resource from local contractors.
Dumfries and Galloway has the third longest roads network in Scotland, with 4,151km of roads to maintain. Dumfries and Galloway Council aims to make the roads as safe as possible for the travelling public and will continue to assess, prioritise and action repairs, in the wake of this extremely wet weather.
Councillor Archie Dryburgh, chairman of DGFirst Management Committee, said, “Over the last few years, we’ve made significant improvements in the quality and quantity of work on our roads maintenance programme. Obviously, our region has recently experienced a prolonged period of adverse weather, which has caused significant further damage to our roads infrastructure. However, despite ongoing weather issues, our fully resourced crews are now out on our roads to deliver our repairs programme. Our policy is to carry out permanent repairs first-time wherever possible. This, along with our investment in training, plant and equipment, means that we have been able to carry out more repairs and better repairs as we strive to reduce the number of defects on our roads.”
Drivers should always pay attention to road conditions and drive appropriately. Inspector Neil Hewitson, Dumfries and Galloway Road Safety Partnership, said “Dumfries and Galloway has experienced very high rainfall over the past two months, which has had a detrimental effect on road surfaces. Please ensure that when you are approaching areas of flooding on the roads, you reduce your speed and always be aware of the fact that deep water may hide potholes and other roads defects, which could seriously damage your vehicle or cause a crash. In general,drivers should always pay attention to road conditions, whatever the weather, and drive appropriately according to the prevailing circumstances.”
To report a pothole, see: http://info.dumgal.gov.uk/faultreporting/LocationMap?id=8
For info on roadworks and road closures, see: http://www.dumgal.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=13792
