Roads in North Tipp are 'disastrous' and 'dangerous'

COUNCILLORS hit out against the “disastrous” condition of a number of Local and Regional Roads in North Tipperary during a recent meeting.
Cllr Fiona Bonfield said the R503 between Thurles and Limerick is “very dangerous” and is “an accident waiting to happen.”
Cllr Michael O'Meara said the R438 and R489 are in very poor condition. “A lorry crashed in Annagh recently on the R438,” he remarked. “The R489 is a disaster. You know I have talked a lot about the R489, Birr to Portumna road. We have all talked a lot about these roads. We can talk for ever but unless we get the funding from the government Department it will mean nothing. I live on the Offaly border and I notice that the Local and Regional roads in Offaly are in better condition than ours in North Tipp. In Offaly they have Just Transition money which means they have more money available for roadworks. Our roads by contrast are twisting and filled with potholes. I am a Councillor for 20 years and I have never seen the roads so bad. Surely we are deserving of Climate Change funding? The roadworks which the Council is doing are very good but not enough work is being done.”
Over the years public representatives have described the R489 as having “very serious” safety issues, including a narrow, blind bend near the Ferry Inn in Portland, Lorrha. Visibility is so poor on some bends that motorists have reported needing to turn off their engines to listen for oncoming traffic. These issues were highlighted in the Dáil in late 2022. Some resurfacing work was carried out in April 2023, but much more needs to be done. The road is a key artery for heavy traffic between the West and the Midlands. Regarding the R438 Cloghan to Borrisokane road, heavy rain sometimes leads to road closures and dangerous driving conditions. The surface of the R438 is also poor in sections.
Cllrs Joe Hannigan and Pamela Quirke-O'Meara agreed. Cllr Bonfield said the R503 runs through her area of Newport and it's a road which many people dislike driving because of its dangerous, unprotected edges, which need safety barriers. A member of the Council Executive said safety barriers are costly.
Cllr Bonfield said the Government Department needs “to open its eyes before someone is killed. A number of cars have crashed on the road in recent weeks. A lot of buses and trucks use it and you could have a terrible accident there. People are afraid to drive it. I'm afraid to drive it.”
The R503 is known for having dangerous, steep drops on either side in certain sections, particularly in the hilly areas between Upperchurch and Newport where the narrow, winding stretches of road lack proper safety barriers.
Roads Engineer Barry Murphy said these problematic roads were built decades ago when the traffic was lighter. “About 100 kilometres of our Local and Regional roads are in a dangerous condition and need to be tackled. We need governmental guidance on what to do with these roads." Cllr Bonfield called on the Department “to come down and look at the R503.”
Liam Brett, Director of Services, pointed out that the Department had given the Council the second largest roads funding allocation of all the counties in the country.
Cllr O'Meara asked how can Offaly County Council create a state of the art road like the Cloghan to Ferbane road and yet Tipperary County Council can't? “I am talking about the Birr to Portumna road for years and yet I am getting no traction. Every day I am getting phone calls from members of the public about the Kilcarren Bog Road section of the R438 with complaints about its potholes and bad surface. I am sick and tired of getting complaints about these roads.”
Mr Brett said he didn't agree with Cllr O'Meara's assessment that Tipperary was doing a worse job than Offaly. “In fact our team is doing the work more efficiently than many other local authorities,” he remarked. “However we do need increased road maintenance allocations and in your budget next November you could budget to increase the road maintenance allocations.”
Cllr John Carroll pointed out that the funding for roads in rural Ireland “is getting tighter and tighter.” He put this down to a lack of will from central Government. “Where there's a will there's a way.”
Cllr Hannigan commented that the R503 is a safety not a roads issue, “because we need to make the road edges safer.”
“In the past five years we have eliminated an awful lot of bad sections of our Local and Regional Roads,” remarked Mr Murphy. “In the last number of weeks we have suffered such a long period of wet and cold weather. It has been, in terms of road maintenance, the most challenging period that I can remember. Last week alone in Nenagh Municipal District we used 50 tonnes of material to fill potholes. Our patching lorry has been working non-stop since the Christmas period. We are also under extreme budgetary constraints.” The Engineer pointed out that roads which are built on Bog Ramparts would probably qualify for Climate Change funding.
Cllr John Carroll pointed out that “the level of road maintenance is very poor in some areas. In some places the patcher hasn't been seen since last October. We are going to have a serious problem on our hands if we don't act now.”
Cllr Bonfield spoke of car springs being damaged on these roads. She said she was blaming the Government, not the Council. She said the government sometimes seems out of touch. She spoke about people she knows seeking help from St Vincent de Paul to pay essential bills such as car insurance, particularly if that transport is necessary for work.
Cllr Seamus Morris agreed. “We as a country are handing out millions of Euro to some very dubious IPAS landlords,” he remarked. Cllr Bonfield said “our local road network is falling apart.”

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