Offaly roads funding doubles but pothole 'craters' remain

THOUGH funding for Offaly roads has more than doubled in five years, potholes are a growing problem, a meeting of the County Council heard recently.

Back in 2019 €12 million was made available for roads but this year the total will be €27.5 million, a combination of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), National Transport Authority (NTA), Department of Transport and County Council funding.

The TII monies amount to €5.9 million and while it covers roads such as the N62, it now also includes the greenways and €3.94 million will be used to complete the main line of the Grand Canal Greenway from Turraun to Shannon Harbour.

The proposal for a new road between Tullamore and Kilbeggan, the N52 link, has not been included in the 2024 funding.

“We have made submissions for it but it has not been granted. We do have a road safety scheme for Durrow,” said Tom Shanahan, director of services.

Department of Transport funding amounts to €15.75 million for 2024 and it includes the R400 Peat Pilot Scheme, an examination of the road between Rhode and Rochfortbridge, which is said to be one of Offaly's worst routes.

The Department of Transport is also paying for the inner relief road works in Edenderry and the Birr distributor roads.

Mr Shanahan told councillors that it is not financially viable to excavate the peat from under the R400 road, as had been done on the N62 from Cloghan to Ferbane.

“The excavation of peat under our non national roads is so expensive it's unlikely to be feasible any time soon,” said Mr Shanahan.

Offaly has now been asked to find ways of rehabilitating roads without excavating the peat and he said geotextiles or membranes will probably be put under the R400 instead.

“It won't last as long,” he conceded.

Challenged by Cllr Eamon Dooley, Fianna Fail, on the finding that it will not be feasible to replicate the work done on the N62 on the smaller roads, Mr Shanahan said: “There's a cost benefit here. Obviously the N62 is carrying much more traffic and was a TII funded project.”

Mr Shanahan said it is hoped the geotextile or membrane solution will last longer than conventional methods and added that when the pilot fund money is combined with money resulting from wind farm developments the overall budget for the R400 is doubled.

Cllr Dooley said he was also disappointed that while the peat roads issue had been pushed over the years in the Birr area, the money went to the Edenderry area.

“There are 2,000km of roads in Offaly, 1,000km of them are in the Municipal District of Birr. I'm not sure how the money is divided up.”

Referring to the N62 work he remarked: “It may be costly, but you're finished with it.”

Cllr Dooley also noted that the peat industry had been in Offaly for 80 years and indicated that Bord na Mona could have a role to play with the council on maintaining roads.

“Now we can't somehow work with Bord na Mona and have something better than bad roads and wind farms.”

He claimed the road near Cloghan to the new wind farm north of the defunct briquette factory had been “destroyed” by hundreds of trucks drawing stone to the project.

The councillor, who is not seeking re-election in June, said he had been “30 years canvassing” and the roads issue had not changed.

“Potholes, road conditions, trying to explain to people about LIS (Local Improvement Scheme), CIR (Community Involvement in Roads), TII, Active Travel, they're not a bit interested in that. All they're interested in is my road and the crater that's down there.”

Cllr Sean O'Brien, Independent, concurred about the potholes. “All sorts of phrases are being used. You could live in them, you could lie in them,” he said.

Referring to some of the back roads in Durrow, Cllr O'Brien remarked: “There's some of them practically impassable.”

Cllr Mark Hackett, Green Party, said weather was a factor in the poor road conditions. “From August last year to now is the highest rainfall recorded ever in Ireland. We all know that roads and water don't mix.”

Cllr Liam Quinn, Fine Gael, told Cllr Dooley that Birr and Tullamore were getting €25 million in TII funding which Edenderry was not getting.

Cllr Quinn also said that in 15 years in local government he hadn't dealt with as many issues as had arisen with the R400 and sometimes people are at their wits end because of damage to vehicles.

“When a lad does harm to a car or something we're the first person he rings. We have to go back and try and get a solution,” said Cllr Quinn. “The council aren't short on compassion, we're short of money.”

He said one issue was that the smaller second and third class roads were getting the smallest increases in funding and he also felt more money could have been allocated under the climate adaptation category.

Cllr Quinn further pointed out that the council was getting funding from wind farms, mainly in the Edenderry Electoral Area, which he calculated had 98 of the 130 turbines granted permission in Offaly.

Good work was being done in many places but in the public eye it was all “torpedoed” by one bad road.

His Fine Gael colleague, Cllr Noel Cribbin, said more staff needed to be appointed while Cllr John Leahy, Independent, praised the new Velocity road patching machines. While they represented a “massive investment” the return was fantastic.

Cllr Leahy joined with Cllr Dooley is calling for investment to be “shared” across the county given the amount of roads in the Birr Electoral Area.

Replying, Cllr Neil Feighery, Fine Gael, said there were plenty of bog roads in the Tullamore area too. “If you want me to list them out, I can,” remarked Cllr Feighery.

Cllr Quinn responded: “We'll share the funding when you share the turbines.”

Concluding the discussion, Mr Shanahan said the wet weather had a cumulative effect on road quality and the ability to carry out repairs.

He said the purchase of two Velocity patchers had been very worthwhile. A third one had been hired in advance of its purchase.

“As the weather improves we will make progress much quicker,” said the council director.

The patchers “will not sort everything” but he said: “By and large they will speed up the process of getting roads back and I expect in two or three weeks we'll see a very big improvement.”

Each Velocity patching unit truck costs up to €300,000.