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To date, almost £600,000 has been invested in reducing rock fall risk at Garron Point with the installation of protection netting at the iconic headland north of Carnlough.

Further investment totalling £560,000 has been committed to resurface poor road surfaces and address coastal erosion events such as landslides and sea defence collapses along the route.

Transport Minister Danny Kennedy, who visited the area this week to view the work, said: “The storm surges and high tides after Christmas caused extensive damage to the sea defences along the Antrim Coast Road. Two areas which suffered significant structural damage were located at the Tower Road junction and close to Drumnagreagh.

“Work is well underway to repair the damage and I want to thank all involved for their efforts in protecting this beautiful coastline.”

During his visit, the Minister also viewed work taking place to construct new retaining walls following landslides at Straidkilly, just north of Glenarm. The £100,000 project was due to be completed last Friday.

Meanwhile, Mr Kennedy also visited the A8 scheme, which is approaching a major milestone in the coming weeks when the new £930,000 Templepatrick Road bridge will open to traffic.

Around £69million has been spent on the scheme so far and it is now 21 months into its 34 month programme. Work is expected to be completed by spring 2015.

The Minister said: “Construction of this major scheme has been progressing very well with the contractor having completed half of the works equating to one million working hours so far.

“A significant part of the scheme will be the completion of the 56 metre span A57 Templepatrick Road bridge which will have taken 15 months to construct. This will be the first of a family of five junctions (bridges) to be constructed on the A8 dualling scheme and it will link the A57 Templepatrick Road to the southern and northern sections of the A8.”