The National Roads Authority (NRA) has been asked to attend the January meeting of Clare County Council to address public dissatisfaction over the remedial works carried out on the motorway linking Crusheen and Gort.
The call came the NRA was subjected to stinging criticism of the effectiveness of work carried out on the motorway, despite two recent road closures.
Councillor Pat Hayes told a recent council meeting motorists were still complaining about a section of the motorway between Gort and Crusheen and weren’t happy with recent works carried out by the NRA.
“The work carried out by the NRA didn’t address the issues that people were complaining about – the dips, hollows and aquaplaning in wet weather. The NRA spent between three to four weeks working on this road and nobody seems to know what they were doing.
“It was all hush hush. The public need to know what is going on. The NRA should be invited to address the council’s January meeting on what work was completed on the Gort to Crusheen section of the motorway as well as road works on national and secondary roads throughout the county,” he said.
He was supported by Councillor Tom McNamara, who admitted when people asked him what the NRA was going, he couldn’t tell them.
“I drove this road and it was impossible to see what work was done by the NRA,” he said.
After confirming the council would send Councillor Hayes’ proposal to the NRA and seek a report, senior engineer Tom Tiernan pointed out the whole situation was much different to what it used to be as the council no longer had a role in relation to motorway maintenance, apart from liaising with the authority in relation to temporary closures.
Mr Tiernan said he understood some of the works concerned adjusting the geometrics along section of the motorway.
Following a detailed inspection of the remedial works, he said the NRA wasn’t happy with one of this work on its second inspection, which resulted in a second road closure to carry out more works.
Dan Danaher
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.