Meagre roadworks funding could backfire say council

FUNDING for roadworks in Clare won’t increase significantly this year but a failure to give enough resources could backfire, it has been warned.

Clare County Council approved a roadworks programme for 2011 on Monday and in the document, director of services Nora Kaye stated the council not receiving sufficient monies from other agencies could have severe consequences.
“Unfortunately, the stitch-in-time approach isn’t being facilitated at present and this could be a source of very significant regret going forward,” she claimed.
The programme stated the severe weather in December 2009 and January 2010 caused an estimated €11 million worth of damage and the €8.233m allocated to deal with the problem wasn’t sufficient.
The situation is still very challenging, it was added. “When taking account of the underfunding of necessary repairs following severe weather events and the fact that some programmes had been deferred or curtailed for 2010, it is understandable that last year’s roadworks programme didn’t succeed in dealing with the weather-damaged sections of the network to the extent that was desired. This situation was further exacerbated by the effects of the most recent severe weather attack to a very significant degree although overall the extent of the damage to be repaired isn’t quite as daunting as it was in early 2010.
“Fortunately, County Clare wasn’t impacted upon quite as severely in December 2010 as were many other counties across the country. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the challenges continue to be huge and the situation is exacerbated by the fact that grants in relation to the non-national component of the network are reduced by 8.25% when compared with 2010.”
The NRA have allocated €5,450,934 for national routes in Clare, an increase of €613,934 on the previous year. The Department of Transport/NRA are allocating €14,300,739 for non-national roads, a reduction of €1,285,759 on 2010 and the council will allocate €4,015,370 for roads, the same amount as in 2010.
While these figures are down on 2010, in real terms, there has been a small increase the report stated, as the money associated with certain major projects don’t have a bearing on the roadworks programme to be implemented on the ground.
However, the amount of funding has shown a major decline in recent years. “This year’s allocations represent only a marginal increase on 2010 levels and are more than 25% less than the levels of funding, which pertained when the funding peak was reached in 2008. It is disappointing and doesn’t represent a meaningful response to the needs of the road network in the county.”
A sum of €220,000 was allocated to the Ennis Bypass for 2011, which the report says should cater for all outstanding matters in terms of funding.
In her conclusion, director of services Nora Kaye said the lack of resources is the biggest problem. “The programme for 2011 for the most part is founded on the need to react appropriately to the almost unprecedented severe weather events experienced during last winter and the winter from which we are now emerging. Overall, the reaction of the funding agencies, upon which we are dependant for budgets, was to provide an overall fund of approximately similar proportions to 2010 but the unfortunate aspect to this is that there is no sign of any meaningful attempt to restore funding levels towards the levels, which pertained over a 10-year period up to and including 2008 and which had facilitated over that period a significant improvement in the country’s infrastructure. This continuing funding deficit situation isn’t sustainable and unfortunately, the reversal of trend as manifested over the past three years is beginning to show levels of stress, which if allowed to continue will result in very significant restorations costs in the not too distant future.”