Maintenance
As each year further repair work is undertaken to our upland paths the maintenance requirement grows. In this area the SLFI will be responsible for the upkeep of 42km of footpath by 2007.
There is the routine clearing of drains and ditches that has to be undertaken on every path each year to prevent damage from surface water flowing over the path surface, but there is also extensive repair work where a section of path has become structurally damaged.
It is impossible to anticipate how a path is going to stand up to severe weather conditions or a significant increase in user numbers and problems might only appear several years after the initial work is done.