‘Ideal conditions’ for potholes in Offaly amid bad weather and lack of funding

Recent bad weather and a lack of funding have provided the “ideal conditions” for potholes to spring up in County Offaly, a council meeting has heard.

A number of members of Offaly County Council spoke on the issue during the February meeting of the Edenderry Municipal District.

Independent councillor Eddie Fitzpatrick highlighted how the bad weather is contributing to the deterioration of certain roads.

Cllr Fitzpatrick said: “I know there’s huge issues. I mean the wet weather is playing a huge part in the destruction of the roads in certain areas.

“I came across Clonbullogue down to Edenderry. That road is absolutely terrible all the way across and the volume of heavy trucks on that road is the big problem.

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“There’s no way that the likes of Edenderry Power are going to pay any compensation to what’s going on there because it’s absolutely crazy. Everyone’s complaining.”

He continued by saying that even if the weather picks up soon, there’s going to be a lot of work to do to get the roads back “into a reasonable situation”.

He also expressed his frustration that certain roads are breaking up again, having only been repaired by the council a number of years ago.

“I see it even in Gracefield on the R420 too. That was only done a few years ago and it’s starting to disintegrate again, all cracking up. It’s going to take a lot of work.

“We’re in a peat based area and we don’t seem to be getting that recognition from the Department in extra funding that we do require here.

“I think it’s something we need to look at going forward. I don’t know if we can force anyone’s hand to get any sort of funding for this region but I certainly think we do need that.”

Sinn Féin councillor Claire Murray also raised the issue of a lack of funding for road repairs in the area.

Cllr Murray said: “It’s clear that the roads in Offaly are not solvable by Offaly County Council. We just don’t have the funding.”

She called on the council to explore hiring a contractor during bad weather periods to deal with the number of potholes that spring up.

Meanwhile, the Cathaoirleach, Cllr Liam Quinn, also expressed his frustration that roads that the council recently looked at are falling into disrepair again.

Senior Executive Engineer Rory Moore echoed these sentiments during the meeting, citing a lack of funding and the bad weather conditions.

Mr Moore said: “In terms of works going on at the minute, obviously our crews and our Velocity Patcher are out the gate trying to cover pothole repairs.

“We’re getting any amount of emails and phone calls every day about potholes. I’d like to remind people that there’s over 400 kilometres of road network out there and we have the resources we have.

“We’re trying our best to get to them as best we can. Unfortunately, with the recent cold spell [...] and the rain, it’s ideal conditions for potholes to be popping up everywhere and anywhere.”

He concluded by reassuring the public that the local authority is trying its best to get to all the potholes.

“We’ll keep working as best we can to get to as many areas and on the major routes especially. Obviously we’ve to concentrate [on them].

“Unfortunately after you’ve patched them, a couple of days later with the weather, they could be opening again or new ones opening up. But as I said, we’re trying our best.”