Road scheme will improve safety and cut journey times

WATERFORD City Council is to implement a roads programme that will see almost €32 million invested in the current year on the city’s road and transport infrastructure.

Designed to improve safety and shorten journeys, €18m is locally sourced with the balance coming from the Government.

Some €8.785m has been allocated by the National Roads Authority including €7.9m for work on the section of the Waterford City Bypass linking the Waterford-Cork Road and the Old Kilmeaden Road. The Department of the Environment has allocated €3.843m for local roads.

The Department of Transport has provided €1.1m, which will allow the council to advance plans to provide bus corridors on the city's main roads. This is intended to ultimately bring greater certainty to bus time-tabling and make travelling to and from work by bus more attractive prospect to commuters, so reducing the numbers of cars using roads at peak times.

Mayor of Waterford, Cllr Hilary Quinlan, said the scheme represented "a major investment in Waterford's future" and will lead to safer and less arduous journeys.

"I'm particularly pleased with the sort of mix that has been achieved between the major headline projects, such as the City Bypass, and the smaller works on local roads and footpaths that cater for less traffic but are of vital importance to those who use them."

City Manager Conn Murray said: "This programme strikes a careful balance between roads projects that will have immediate positive impacts on the quality-of-life enjoyed by road users and investments in road infrastructure to meet future socio-economic needs.

"The completion of the €37m Outer Ring Road was obviously a very significant milestone for Waterford but we now move to a perhaps even more important phase as we open out the northwest of our city and as work commences on the City Bypass that will ultimately allow smooth movement of traffic in an arc from Waterford Regional Hospital to the main Limerick and Dublin roads at Grannagh."

Among the local roads to benefit from funding are the Outer Ring Road, the Williamstown Road where €2.425m will be spent on safety-focused improvement works and the Old Kilmeaden Road, where €2.8m will be spent on measures to make the road safer for the volumes of traffic using it.

Funds are also earmarked for the Summerland junction near the Mercy Convent, the Booterstown/Farmleigh junction on the Dunmore Road, and for planning work on the Old Tramore Road realignment and the Kilbarry Road realignment.

Money will also be spent improving footpaths to make them more accessible for those with mobility impairments and on pavements at 39 residential locations.