Key points

Road Length

  • At 1 April 2023, the total road length in Northern Ireland was 25,858 kilometres.
  • Unclassified roads accounted for the largest proportion of all roads (61.1%) followed by C roads (18.3%), B roads (11.3%), A roads (8.9%) and Motorways (0.4%).
  • Analysis of the urban / rural split of the road network reveals that 77.2% of carriageway road lengths were rural (speed limit of more than 40 mph) and 22.8% of carriageway road lengths were urban (speed limit of 40 mph or less).

Road Condition

  • In 2022-23, 82.6% of A class roads in Northern Ireland were categorised as being in generally good condition according to the Surface Condition Assessment for the National Network of Roads (SCANNER) survey. Two percent of A class roads were in poor condition requiring further investigation.
  • In 2022-23, the Deflectograph survey found that 93.8% of the combined motorway and Trunk Road Network had a residual life of more than five years remaining in the sub structure of the road i.e. the base of the road and not the surface of the road.
  • In 2022-23, there were 100,487 surface defects instructed following inspections on the roads in Northern Ireland.
  • In 2022-23, there were 84,900 surface defects repaired.

Road Expenditure

  • In 2022-23, the total expenditure on the roads in Northern Ireland was £441 million, 7.5% lower than in the previous year (£477 million in 2021-22).
  • Of the total expenditure on roads in 2022-23, £127 million was spent on Structural Maintenance; this included £111 million on capital expenditure and £16 million spent on resource. A further £66 million was spent on New Construction and Improvement.

Infographic

Road Network and Condition 2022-23 Infographic

Introduction

This report brings together information on road length, condition and expenditure in Northern Ireland for 2019/20 to 2022/23. This is a new official statistics report produced by the Analysis, Statistics and Research Branch (ASRB) of the Department for Infrastructure (DfI). DfI has responsibility for the road network in Northern Ireland and under Article 8 of the Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993, it has a statutory duty to maintain the province’s road network. This report has been produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, complying with the pillars of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value and it will be published annually.

Background

A Northern Ireland Audit Office Report Structural Maintenance of the Road Network made a number of recommendations, including, that DfI should publish information on the condition of the road network to support independent monitoring and inform decision-making. A survey previously carried out on Northern Ireland Transport Statistics also identified an interest in the road network statistics formerly produced within Chapter 1 of the Transport Statistics bulletin. Furthermore, the volume of queries received by DfI relating to the road network highlighted that there is a need to publish robust statistics on the road length, condition and expenditure in Northern Ireland.

Uses of the data

It is anticipated that this report will be used for a range of purposes, for example, to inform policy and operational decision making and to respond to queries. Following publication of the report, a user engagement survey will be carried out to identify further uses of the data.

User information

The report includes user guidance and is published alongside a Background Quality Report (BQR), Quality Assurance of Administrative Data report (QAAD) and Technical Report. The BQR provides information on the quality of the data used to produce the official statistics, including their accuracy and reliability, coherence and comparability, and timeliness and punctuality. The QAAD is a quality assessment of the administrative data sources which are used to produce the road network and condition statistics. This assessment found that the level of risk of quality concerns in these sources is low. The Technical Report includes detail on the more technical aspects of the data used to produce this statistical report.

Users should refer to the user guidance section when considering the statistics in this report. In terms of road condition statistics, it is important to note that not all road classes are covered by the road condition surveys reported and that the level of inspections on the roads will impact the number of road surface defects detected. The number of surface defects repaired is also dependent upon resources being available to undertake the repairs. More detail on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Road Condition statistics is detailed in the user guidance.