Concern roadworks ‘will kill business’ in North Cork

Councillors have pleaded with Transport Initiative Ireland (TII) not to completely close a main road in North Cork for realignment and resurfacing as it could kill off businesses in two villages.

Major work on upgrading the N72 (Mallow-Fermoy road) has been undertaken in recent years and another project is set to start in the middle of next month.

Councillors have stressed in the past that businesses in Ballyhooly and Castletownroche have suffered badly from road closures and diversions and another bout could close some of them altogether. While the local authority will carry out the work, the ultimate decision rests with TII (formery the NRA), because it is in charge of national roads.

Cllr Noel McCarthy (FG) said he was opposed to road closures in both villages and insisted “a stop and go system should be put in place.”

“There was huge inconvenience before for businesses, especially in Ballyhooly. Also, I don’t think some of the roads being used for detours around N72 can take the heavy traffic,” Cllr McCarthy said.

“Please listen to us (councillors) before works tarts.”

His party colleague, Cllr Kay Dawson, said she didn’t think some businesses in the villages would survive another road closure, adding “a way around this must be found.”

Councillors Ian Doyle (FF), June Murphy (Ind) and Deirdre O’Brien (FF) said they were against road closures.

However, Tom Stritch, the county council’s director of road services, said there was no choice on narrow sections of the N72 because the machines which would be used would be too wide to allow vehicles to pass.

He also said there were issues of health and safety involved which would necessitate road closures at times.

“We will have to carry out some closures,” he insisted.

Mr Stritch said that last minor roads in the area were used for the N72 diversions “they were wrecked” by the volume and weight of the traffic.

He added that the NRA didn’t reimburse the local authority for that damage.

A TII spokesman said they understood the difficulties some businesses would encounter from a road closure, but it wasn’t possible to carry out all the work without that happening.

He said they would liaise with County Council officials to see how they could minimise disruption.

“I understand it’s hurting the businesses and I’ll also try and help to make sure disruption is kept to a minimum for them,” assistant county manager James Fogarty said. Cllr McCarthy said he could understand the health and safety issues involved in upgrading the road, but insisted before any work takes place that officials from the TII and county council speak with the business owners affected.

“Maybe we could use a stop and go until we get to the difficult sections. What about working at night-time?,” Cllr McCarthy added.

Meanwhile, councillors also expressed their concern about the effects recent water outages had had on businesses and householders in Ballyhooly.

Cllr Frank O’Flynn (FF) and Cllr McCarthy won support from colleagues when they asked that the council write to Irish Water insisting that as a matter or urgency it upgrade the supply system there and drastically improve its communications system about outages.