I read this with very little surprise.

The Toome bypass in County Antrim, which opened four years ago, needs a new surface, the Department for Regional Development has announced.

Mainly because the bypass, while a vast improvement over the previous arrangements, is a masterful example of built in obsolescence. By limiting it in the ways that it was limited, with no real savings made by doing so, the road will need major work in the coming decades.

How is it limited? Well, by putting three roundabouts in a couple of miles; putting a random junction in the middle as well. So a road that was meant to speed up traffic flow around Toome ends up having three points of entry into the town, which cause the only congestion on the route. For the love of God, why? Why not just have the one roundabout (by the park and ride), and then have it straight on past the Elk? Bypassing Toome, as was the stated intent?

Not that the roundabouts are a particular bugbear of mine, no sirree….