Anger as road authority puts relief road on hold

CONFIRMATION yesterday that the National Roads Authority has torpedoed two major schemes led to angry scenes at a Cork County Council meeting.

The authority, it emerged, has postponed partly-completed vital road works adjacent to the Amgen site in east Cork and has also refused to fund Mallow’s northern relief road.

County manager, Martin Riordan, said he was “very disappointed” to have received a letter from the authority stating it was putting work on hold on upgrading the N25 outside the proposed Amgen factory site in Carrigtwohill.

The revelation caused consternation among a number of public representatives, who are still reeling from news that the biopharmaceutical company had put its plans on hold for a 1,100-job factory.

While Amgen stated last year that it was postponing the development, it was widely believed that the project had been lost.

Yesterday’s NRA announcement has reinforced local fears.

Cllr Martin Hegarty (FG) said that even after Amgen had indicated a postponement, the authority said it was prepared to proceed with developing a major interchange and flyover outside the plant.

“If the authority was ready to proceed with construction then where has that money gone now?” he asked.

Cllr Alan Coleman (FF) said it was a “disgrace” that the road improvements wouldn’t go ahead because of the “small-mindedness” of the authority.

“People were jammed in cars on the road for hours when the first part of the roadworks started there,” an angry Cllr John Mulvihill (Labour) said.

The county manager said it would be easier to market the site for an alternative major industry if all the infrastructure was in place.

Meanwhile, the authority said it wasn’t going to proceed with construction of Mallow’s northern relief road because it would cost too much to acquire land through compulsory purchase orders, as some of the land had been zoned for housing.

This incensed Cllr Dan Joe Fitzgerald (FF). “We were told by senior planners that a corridor was left. I’m disgusted with the report saying otherwise,” he said.