AQW 17583/17-22


Mr Andrew Muir
Alliance Party
North Down


Tabled Date: 19/04/2021
Answered On Date: 28/04/2021
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure pursuant to AQW 16971/17-22, what metrics her Department's Roads Divisions use to ensure that funds are distributed equitably across local council areas.


Answer:
In my reply to your previous question (AQW 16971/17-22), I advised that structural maintenance allocations to the four DfI Roads Divisions are made on the basis of need, using a range of weighted indicators tailored to each maintenance activity. Divisions broadly use these indictors when apportioning across council areas to ensure, as far as possible, an equitable distribution of funds.
The table below sets out examples of the two main structural maintenance activities and the associated range of indicators and metrics currently used across the DfI Roads Divisions to distribute funding to local Council areas:
Category
Indicator
Metrics
Source
Resurfacing
Traffic
Where traffic counts are not available, population density is used as a proxy
N.I. Census
Length of H, M & L traffic roads
Road Maintenance Client System*
Condition
Number of carriageway surface defects
Road Maintenance Client System
Percentage length of road at or below an intervention / investigatory level
Road Condition Surveys e.g. SCANNER/SCRIM and deflectograph
Number of Public Liability claims
DfI Claims Unit / Road Maintenance Client System
Carriageway Length
Length of All roads
Road Maintenance Client System
Length of A&B class roads
Carriageway Area
Area of All roads
Road Maintenance Client System
Area of Urban Roads
Area of A&B class roads
Surface Dressing
Condition
Number of carriageway surface defects
Road Maintenance Client System
Carriageway Length
Rural road length
Road Maintenance Client System
Carriageway Area
Area of bitmac rural roads
Road Maintenance Client System
3 year Average spend
3 year Average spend on surface dressing
DfI Accounting System
*The Road Maintenance Client System is the Department’s asset management system used to manage the maintenance of the public road network throughout the whole of Northern Ireland.
The exact combination of indicators and metrics used within each Division will be tailored to reflect individual needs and circumstances in the Division at that time with decisions and budgets influenced by specific allocations for functions such as Trunk Road resurfacing schemes and structural stability, including coastal defence repairs. Given the need to consider these functions separately, no Section Office or local Council area will receive a fixed percentage of the available allocation each year.