Plan to reduce speed limit on one of Offaly's worst roads postponed

A plan to reduce the speed limit to 60kph on one of Offaly's worst road have been postponed

A number of councillors disagreed with a speed limit plan for one of Offaly's worst roads, the R400 between Rhode and Rochfortbridge, during the February meeting of Offaly County Council.

The Council Executive said it wants to make a couple of sections of the R400 a 60kph zone because the surface is sub-standard, while leaving one section a 80kph zone because it has been upgraded.

Cllr Claire Murray (Fianna Fáil) said the whole road is 80kph at the moment and there's a lot of dangerous overtaking on it.

She feared this overtaking problem would get even worse if the two bad sections are reduced to 60kph.

A Council official said they want to reduce the two sections to 60kph in order to make them safer.

“They will only be 60kph for 24 months while the upgrading work takes place,” he remarked.

Cllr Fergus McDonnell told the meeting that he wasn't convinced of the merits of reducing to 60kph.

Cllr Noel Cribbin supported the speed reduction, while Cllr Liam Quinn suggested postponing making a decision for a month.

Chief Executive Anna Marie Delaney commented that the Engineer is worried that drivers “will speed up at the good section and then hit the bad sections going too fast.”

It was decided to postpone making a decision for a month.

A year ago it was announced that the Department of Transport was granting funding amounting to €15.75 million which would include the R400 Peat Pilot Scheme. When the funding was announced the Council said it was 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,” a Director of Services said, adding that Offaly has now been asked to find ways of rehabilitating roads without excavating the peat, and geotextiles or membranes would probably be put under the R400 instead.

There are also plans to construct a mammoth 710MW gas-fired plant on both sides of the road.