Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure (DfI) has revised its procurement strategy to include road markings as a specialist trade after lobbying from the sector’s trade body.
The Road Safety Markings Association (RSMA) said it was made aware that the DfI had published a procurement strategy that did not include road markings as a specialist trade, and instead included them within wider streetworks when bidding for contracts.
‘This caused concern for members of the Association as they would not be able to bid for work, but rather be a subcontractor on jobs, potentially for main contractors who had no knowledge of road markings,’ an RSMA spokesperson said.
The RSMA facilitated a roundtable with DfI and members in Northern Ireland to voice concerns about the strategy and ‘give deeper insight’ into the importance of markings and the need for it to be listed as a specialist trade.
It has now received correspondence from DfI, confirming that it had reviewed the procurement strategy: ‘This review has led to an opportunity to revise the framework packaging to incorporate a new framework into the programme for Road Markings and Surface Treatments. It is our intention to commence procurement of this framework in early 2027.’
RSMA CEO Rob Shearing said: ‘We are so glad that we were able to engage with the DfI on an issue so important to our members. The aim of the meeting was to get all involved parties to understand the challenges of the strategy, but this has led to a full review for which we are most grateful.
‘The RSMA is constantly working to engage with members and facilitate these types of discussions to ensure that road marking standards are kept to the highest quality to ensure safety on the roads.’
The DfI is responsible for all public roads in Northern Ireland.
