The St Helena Government (SHG) Roads Section has received questions from members of the public about which roads SHG is responsible for maintaining, how repair work is prioritised, and why some roads receive attention before others. To help the community understand how the island’s road network is managed, SHG is setting out how roads on St Helena are classified, and what the Roads Section’s maintenance budget allows it to do.

Understanding the difference between adopted (Government) and un-adopted (non- Government) roads, and between primary, secondary and tertiary roads, explains how maintenance decisions are made and why SHG’s resources are focused where they are.

There are two categories of roads on St Helena:

• Government (Adopted roads)
• Non-government (Un-adopted roads)

Each of these categories can be broken down further as in Table 1.

Table 1: Categories of Roads

Road Definitions & Classifications

Government (Adopted) Roads

Primary roads serve the main centres of population, the main industrial / commercial areas and a ring road connecting the main areas of the island.  These roads are used by the most people and carries the most volume of traffic on island. It is also the highest priority when the reactive maintenance plan is formulated. E.g. Side Path Road, Ladder Hill Road

1. Secondary roads serve the various communities distributed around the island as well as areas of industry, commerce and agriculture. These roads are at lower maintenance priority than primary roads. E.g. Evergreen Drive in Half Tree Hollow

Tertiary roads are all other surfaced roads maintained by SHG including roads provided as part of the serviced house plots and serve small clusters of 3 to 6 properties or individual accesses. These roads are at the lowest end of priority when

the reactive maintenance plan is formulated.

Non-Government (Un-adopted) Roads

• District Roads: Roads that provide access to individual parcels of land or specific plots. These are classified legally based on land tenure:
  • a) Private on Crown Land: Un-adopted roads situated on Crown land used to access leased or allocated plots.
  • b) Private on Private Land: Un-adopted roads situated entirely on privately owned land.
• Community Roads: Un-adopted roads that provide shared access to multiple homes, residential clusters, or community facilities. While these roads are not maintained under SHG’s recurrent maintenance budget, they represent shared neighbourhood access routes used by multiple households. E.g. Sapper Way.

Maintenance Strategy and Resource Allocation

To maximise public safety and road efficiency within the available recurrent annual budget, the SHG Roads Section focuses primary efforts on reactive and emergency maintenance across the 115 km adopted road network. Monthly inspections of all adopted roads are conducted to identify hazards and schedule necessary reactive work, with primary roads taking precedence due to high traffic volumes.

There is currently no recurrent budget for long-term proactive or planned maintenance, nor is there funding to undertake work on un-adopted roads (including private roads on the Crown Estate or private land). Under current recurrent funding levels, the budget only allows for approximately 2.5 to 3 km of reactive maintenance across the entire 115 km adopted network each year.

Capital Projects vs. Recurrent Maintenance

Members of the public may have noticed major road resurfacing works completed across the island last year. Please note that these major resurfacing works were capital improvements funded through the Economic Development Investment Programme (EDIP), rather than SHG’s recurrent annual maintenance budget. Recurrent maintenance funding remains strictly limited to essential reactive and emergency repairs on adopted public roads.

Recurrent Budget Limitations

To maximise public safety and road efficiency within available annual funding, the SHG Roads Section focuses its recurrent resources exclusively on reactive and emergency repairs across the 115 km adopted road network. Monthly inspections of all adopted roads are conducted to identify hazards and schedule necessary reactive work, with primary roads taking precedence due to high traffic volumes.

There is currently no recurrent budget for long-term proactive or planned maintenance, nor is there funding to undertake work on un-adopted roads (including private roads on the Crown Estate or private land). Under current recurrent funding levels, the budget only allows for approximately 2.5 to 3 km of reactive maintenance across the entire 115 km adopted network each year.

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