Tag Archives: road maintenance

A WEST Clare councillor has made a passionate plea for the region’s roads to receive a slice of the exchequer surplus of €5 billion.  Strong growth in tax revenue and an end to many Covid supports resulted in an exchequer swing of €12.4 billion at the end of last year from the €7.4 billion deficit recorded in 2021. Given the windfall, Councillor Ian Lynch has written to Ministers Eamon Ryan and Micheál McGrath highlighting the dire state of roads in the West Clare Municipal District. The Independent member made the case for an injection of €50 million for Clare County Council for road improvements, focusing on vital surface dressing and strengthening improvements.  In correspondence seen by The Champion, the Kilrush man told the Ministers for Transport and Public Expenditure said: “Decades of underinvestment in rural roads no longer allows for these finances to be tucked away for a rainy day the investment in rural roads must be made now. I …

A FIVE-YEAR programme to address the condition of one of West Clare’s main arterial routes has been called for, amid ongoing concerns at changes to speed limits on the N68. Reductions at a number of points on the road from Kilrush to Ennis were introduced in 2019, meaning there are 11 different speed zones on the route. At the West Clare Municipal District meeting last week, these concerns prompted a Kilrush-based councillor to consider voting against the Schedule of Municipal District Works. The programme was unveiled by Senior Engineer, John Leahy and described by Director of Services Leonard Cleary as “a very, very good result for West Clare”. There was a welcome, generally, for the fact that €34.5 million has been allocated for the county, but Councillor Ian Lynch said that the condition of the N68 from Kilrush to Ennis caused him to think twice before giving his backing to the schedule of works. The Independent councillor thanked Mr Leahy …

IT has been a busy start to the winter period at Clare County Council’s maintenance facilities, with 673.5 tonnes of rock salt and 147,000 litres of brine used to date in road treatment operations. The local authority’s fleet of seven salt and brine spreader trucks treated 673 kilometres of road on 14 separate days in recent weeks. Clare County Council says it has ample supplies of rock salt to treat the county’s regional and national roads during the remainder of winter.  Two thousand tonnes of rock salt are currently in storage at the local authority’s depot facility at Beechpark, while an additional 1,000 tonnes are due to be delivered during the next week. Meanwhile, the council is reminding members of the public of the importance of being prepared during the winter season, which brings with it an increased threat of severe weather, including snow, ice, damaging winds and flooding. The call follows the launch this week by Government of the …