MOTORISTS are being forced to ‘dodge potholes’ on the N71 at Ballylickey because the road surface is crumbling, a local councillor claimed last week.
Cllr Danny Collins (Ind Ire) was speaking at a meeting of the local authority where furious councillors called on Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to reinstate funding for important road projects in West Cork.
TII recently advised Cork County Council not to proceed to award contracts for projects like the N71 Ballylickey to Dromkeal pavement scheme.
Cllr Danny Collins (Ind Ire) said it’s a ‘total and utter disgrace’ that funding has been pulled for this scheme, especially when the design team at County Hall were hoping to start work on it by the end of the year.
‘There have been a number of accidents at this junction and the road surface is actually crumbling – it’s in a dreadful condition. There has been one serious accident there and several minor ones,’ said Cllr Collins.
‘People are having to dodge potholes and for funding to be withdrawn is an utter disgrace,’ he added.
County mayor Cllr Joe Carroll said he is ‘fed up to the teeth’ with what he has seen over the last couple of years regarding the funding of roads in the county.
‘If you contacted the Minister for Transport looking for funding for a greenway you would get the money sent down in the post tomorrow, but the roads are not getting funding,’ said Cllr Carroll.
Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy (FF) said a few worthwhile projects for West Cork have been ‘mothballed’ while TII review their spending for the rest of the year.
‘These are hugely important schemes, especially for Ballylickey where you have a huge camping site, a busy supermarket, two hotels and a restaurant.
‘A footpath was to be provided along there to provide safe travel,’ said Cllr Murphy.
‘The money is there for the footpath, but it can’t progress because the re-surfacing is now put on hold while this review is going on. It’s just not good enough,’ he said, adding that it was now a ‘road safety’ issue.
Cllr Noel O’Donovan (FG) also highlighted the withdrawal of funding for the N71 Newmills Scheme and challenged Minister Eamon Ryan to come down to West Cork and see for himself how bad the roads are in the region.
‘This is life and death. Our road infrastructure is an absolute disgrace and it’s down to a lack of funding from successive governments,’ said Cllr O’Donovan.
Meanwhile funding for road upgrades could be diverted away from projects in West Cork to cover cost overruns, a Fine Gael councillor has warned.
Cllr John Paul O’Shea, who is running for the party in Cork North West in the general election, said as funding has been diverted to cover the overruns on bigger projects, smaller essential works could be left behind.
‘The Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan has said that some bigger projects have run over budget and require additional funding, but he’s refused to say how much these projects have been overrun by,’ said Cllr O’Shea. ‘Additional funding for these major projects will potentially be taken from the roads maintenance budget. If funding is taken from this budget, we could see the deterioration of roads all across the country.’
He said reduced investment in key road infrastructure would not only impact road safety but may also threaten economic growth in more rural areas.
‘We know projects like the Adare Bypass are important, and we need to see these projects completed, but it can’t be at the expense of smaller upgrades.
‘The national roads maintenance programme should not be used as a means to balance budgets from other capital projects.’
