Govt working to get multi-million Dunkettle upgrade 'built quickly'
The Tánaiste has insisted that everything possible is being done to deliver the multi-million Dunkettle interchange upgrade as quickly as possible.
Simon Coveney said however that there is still no final decision on the terms and conditions attached to a €30m state funding package for the city's stalled 6,000-seat events centre.
But the Agriculture Minister Michael Creed says he is confident that the green light will be given within weeks for construction of the long-awaited €220m bypass of Macroom - a major pinch-point on the crucial N22 Cork-Kerry artery.
They were speaking ahead of the Construction Industry Federation's southern construction summit in Cork this week.
It's being held in the wake of criticism levelled at the government over delays delivering key pieces of infrastructure for Cork over the last decade.
The Dunkettle upgrade has been delayed by at least 12-months after Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and contractor Sisk, which won the first design phase of the project, failed to agree costs for the construction phase.
While initial estimates costed the project at €100m, costs have now soared to somewhere between €115m and €170m.
Challenging ground conditions north, east and west of the Jack Lynch Tunnel have been blamed for some of the increased costs.
Mr Coveney said he wanted to reassure people that the scheme is advancing and that funding is secure.
"We are going to work with TII to make sure that all of the timelines are as short as possible so that any delays are as short as possible so that we get this really important piece of infrastructure built quickly," he said.
But he said there is still no white smoke on the event centre funding.
"I have been consistently saying that we want to finalise the funding decisions in parallel with finalising the planning decisions and I think we are still focused on doing that and I think we can do that," he said.
A planning decision is expected within four weeks.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Michael Creed said he is confident that Cabinet will sign off within weeks on some €280m for the Macroom bypass - a 22-km dual carriageway which will run from east of Macroom to the county bounds.
"I don't want to underestimate the time lag that will be there in terms of the time it will take to build it but it's a really welcome development and one that is long overdue and it will be of benefit, not just to Macroom, but from all places from the county bounds to east of Macroom," he said.
The road, which has been in planning well over a decade, will take traffic using the existing N22 on a bypass north of Macroom town.
According to TII, it will involve the construction of 18 road bridges and four river bridges.
An estimated 14,000 vehicles use the existing road daily. TII says the bypass has been designed to cater for over 20,000 vehicular movements a day.
