Roads deteriorating

SHETLAND’S much praised road network is in a poorer state than it might seem, according to outgoing infrastructure director Phil Crossland.

The council’s environment and transport committee heard on Wednesday that more than £20 million was needed to bring the islands’ roads back to “green” standard.

The meeting also learned that Shetland’s road maintenance budget was £1 million below what is needed to prevent further deterioration.

Committee chairman Allan Wishart described the report as a “good news story”, saying the council had managed to maintain the roads network with ever tighter budgets.

But Shetland South member George Smith warned: “We should not go overboard with congratulating ourselves,” pointing out that the roads maintenance budget was severely underfunded.

Comparing Shetland with the pothole-riddled roads of the Scottish mainland, council convener Malcolm Bell said he always thought the local highways were in a much better state of repair.

That, he was told, was only true on the surface since the quality of roads are very much determined by what is below the 40 mm top layer.

Crossland said that because most of Shetland A class roads were built during the early oil boom and were now 30 years old, they were showing signs of cracking and rutting.

Furthermore, many of Shetland’s single track roads built on peat are giving way under the weight of heavy aquaculture and other haulage traffic.

Manager Dave Coupe said in his report that the isles’ roads network was the council’s most valuable asset, estimated to be worth £1 billion pounds.

A further deterioration of that asset would mean a reduction in value of tens of millions of pounds.