Potholes continue to appear on the roads across Northern Ireland, causing frustration and distress among drivers. With students being concerned about what this could mean financially, as they already express financial struggle with the cost of living.
“Especially as a student, where finances are so low, one pothole can cause a £50 fine.” Chris Murray, a member of Ulster University Coleraine’s Student Union adds.
There are more than 1 million potholes recorded across the UK, with figures from 2023 where there had been over 110,000 potholes recorded across Northern Ireland by the department of infrastructure.
He adds, “Around the likes of shops, busy roads, it needs to be looked at and responded to quicker by the local government.”
With Sinn Fein councillor Niam Archibald offering a statement, “The winter period has taken a severe toll on the road network.”
But how has it got to this point? Well, it starts with cracks in the road surface, this is usually caused by things like heavy traffic, or the pavement itself not being strong enough.
Water then seeps into these cracks, weakening the pavement more leading to erosion of freeze-thaw cycles which is more common in cold climates.
The weight of the traffic running over the weakened pavement eventually leads to the collapse of the pavement.
Potholes while usually begging with small cracks can expand from a few centimetres all the way up to a metre wide, and can drop more than 10 centimetres deep if not fixed quick enough.
Northern Ireland and Ireland has been met with what seems like endless rainfall, with a total of 46 days recorded as 2026. Conditions like this allow for more potholes to form.
“The infrastructure Minister has secured £7.85m for a Winter Recovery Road Fund to help address the deterioration of the road network, this comes on the back of £30m which was secured just before Christmas to improve roads.”
