The condition of our roads is highly dependent on prevailing weather conditions. Dumfries and Galloway has recently experienced extreme weather with high winds, prolonged periods of heavy rain, and snow, hampering our pothole repairs programme and causing significant further damage to road surfaces. Folllowing the thaw, we’re now dealing with potholes across the region on a priority basis.
Dumfries and Galloway has the third longest roads network in Scotland, with 4,151km of roads to maintain.
A service-wide review of road maintenance operations, started in 2012, changed our working methods for carriageway repairs to a first time permanent basis wherever possible. This new approach, combined with investment in training, plant and equipment and significant capital investment in road surfacing, has resulted in better repairs and a reduction in the number of defects on our roads.
A complete survey of our local road network in November 2013 found 4,500 defects. By November 2014 this figure was down to 1,437 defects.
Councillor Archie Dryburgh, chairman of DGFirst Management Committee, said, “Over the last year or so, we’ve made significant improvements in the quality and quantity of our pothole repairs. Obviously, we’ve recently experienced a period of adverse weather, which has caused significant further damage to our road surfaces. However, our fully resourced crews are no out on our roads continuing with our repairs programme.”
It should also be noted that there are 345km of trunk roads in Dumfries and Galloway, which the Council isn’t responsible for maintaining. There are also unadopted roads that the Council isn’t responsible for.
