Drive with care as 2025 road works season ramps up

Drivers are being urged to allow extra time for journeys and drive with care as Orkney Islands Council’s Roads team gears up for the summer road works season – including the annual surface dressing programme.

The Roads team is already out and about doing preparatory work in several areas of the county ahead of surface dressing starting next week - including road sweeping, surveys, patching and setting up signage and traffic management.

The warmer summer months typically sees an extensive surface dressing programme take place around the county, where selected roads are ‘dressed’ with a protective layer of polymer binder and chips to help prolong the life of carriageways.

The 2025 programme will start around 14 May at Russland Road in Harray, and finish  around the end of June, and will see 17 stretches of road totalling around 21km being surface dressed, across ten different areas - Birsay, Sandwick, Harray, Orphir, Kirkwall, St Ola, South Ronaldsay, Holm, Deerness and Stromness.

Crews will be working around school transport, but sections will be closed to all other traffic (with the usual exception of emergency vehicles).

Roads included in this year’s programme are listed below and folk can take a closer look via the interactive map at www.orkney.gov.uk/roads

Surface dressing seals the road surface, preventing further deterioration and stopping water from penetrating the deeper road structure, which can then lead to potholes forming. At around £6 per square metre it is an effective and efficient way to reduce the need for more costly repairs such as resurfacing (where the road surface is planed out and replaced).

Lorna Richardson is Head of the Council’s Neighbourhood Services: “We surface dress in summer as the warmer temperatures help the materials cure quicker, meaning we can move through the work and reopen roads in optimum time for people.

“We’d ask drivers to be mindful our team are out and about more over coming weeks, and could well be on the roads in early mornings to set up and possibly sometimes later than 5pm - so please be prepared to encounter crews on the road right throughout the summer roadworks season.”

Once underway, folks can follow the Council’s social media for updates on surface dressing operations:

• Telegram: t.me/OIC_Roads
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/oicupdates 
• www.orkney.gov.uk

The 2025 surface dressing programme is detailed below in date order. Please note work is weather and temperature dependent and so all dates provided are indicative only. 

• Harray: Russland Road (from A986 to Lochview) – 14 May to 21 May 
• Birsay: B9056 (from Marwick Road junction up to Skidge Road) – 19 May to 25 May 
• Sandwick: Bristol Road (from B9056 to Quoyloo Road) – 19 May to 22 May 
• Stromnes: Outertown Road     (from Warbeth Road junction to just after Burn of Streather) – 26 May to 30 May 
• Stromness: Springfield Crescent (full extent) – 27 May to 30 May 
• Stromness: Nethertown Road (from Back Road to just beyond 30mph signs) – 27 May to 30 May 
• Orphir: Gyre Road (from west side of A964 junction to 30mph signs) – 28 May to 4 June 
• St.Oa: Orquil Road (from A964 to the cemetery) – 2 June to 5 June 
• Kirkwall: Old Scapa Road / High Street (from Foreland Road to New Scapa Road) – 2 June to 5 June 
• Kirkwall: Papdale Road / Drive / Crescent / Place    (full extent) – 3 June to 6 June 
• Deerness: Denwick Road (from B9050 to Seater / top of Manse Road) – 5 June to 11 June 
• Deerness: Halley Road (from B9050 to Braebuster) – 9 June to 13 June 
• St Mary's: A961(through the village between 30mph signs) – 10 June to 13 June 
• St Mary's: Graemeshall Road (from B9052 to junction with Biggings) – 12 June to 18 June 
• South Ronaldsay: Haybrake Road (from A961 to Aikers Road) – 16 June to 20 June 
• South Ronaldsay: B9044 Grimness Road (from A961 to the second passing place on Aikers Road) 18 June to 23 June 
• South Ronaldsay    : St Margarets Road (from top of village to Cromarty Square) – 23 to 27 June