Funding cuts restrict roadworks

Projects planned for East Clare under the council’s road works programme for 2010 have been shelved to allow for required maintenance works to be carried out in the wake of the inclement weather experienced.

Councillors were informed at the Killaloe Electoral Area meeting last week that planned road projects would not go ahead in the area due to funding cuts, which have restricted works to upgrading and maintenance of road networks affected by flood and frost damage.
The electoral area representatives were also told that not all of the 55 road works projects identified as necessary would actually be facilitated.
Speaking to the councillors at the meeting last Wednesday, executive engineer for roads, Pat Henchy said the funding allocated for the maintenance work “will repair almost all the bad roads but work scheduled for this year will be shelved”.
He added that the works that would be carried out would also be limited. “We need to prioritise the roads. We will cover the main roads but the tertiary roads may not be covered.”
Mr Henchy said that the council engineers had identified roads that required works to be carried out and valued the cost of these works at €8million. He said “there are always roads that need to be done and we are always going to be playing catch-up”.
In a formal reply to councillors Joe Cooney and Pat Hayes’ motions calling for updates on the 2010 road allocations, senior executive engineer Seán Lenihan stated, “We collated the lists of flood and frost-damaged roads, along with the schedule of roads that we had intended to do in the current year. The overall list totalling approximately 55 jobs at an estimated cost of €3.6m was then prioritised.
“At this stage, it appears that our East Clare allocation will be in the order of €2.1m for road improvements, with a further €800,000 approximate allocation for surface dressing and approximately €140,000 for discretionary maintenance. The final programme is currently being finalised and will be presented to the members for consideration/approval at the April council meeting,” he stated.
Responding to the information, local councillors were anxious to find out what roads are to be included as part of the new programme and concern was raised about minor roads that would be left out of the equation.
“This lack of funding is tying our hands here. We should be looking for more funding from the department but they are not heeding it. I feel very sorry for people living on these minor roads. Night and day we have people complaining about the roads,” Councillor Joe Cooney commented.
Other councillors sought the disclosure of the roads that are to be included and asked if there were any alterations, substitutions or additions that they could make.
Michael McNamara, senior executive officer, corporate services, explained, “Details of all the roads will be coming before the April Clare County Council meeting and proposals can be made for roads that can be taken out and you can replace them with others”.
However, he stressed that no additions could be made without the withdrawal of other projects.
Councillors called for a meeting to be held ahead of this month’s scheduled county council meeting to discuss the details of the proposed road works to see if changes would need to be made.
They were advised that all other councillors would be in the same situation and that the details of the roads to be catered for would only be released with the forthcoming Clare County Council agenda.