'Botch jobs are being done': Cork council to get tough on utility companies ripping up roads
Cork County Council has signalled a new get-tough policy with utility companies that dig up roads and footpaths but fail to carry out proper reinstatement works within a reasonable timeframe.
Cork County Council has signalled a new get-tough policy with utility companies that dig up roads and footpaths but fail to carry out proper reinstatement works within a reasonable timeframe.
The local authority's chief executive Tim Lucey acknowledged ongoing frustrations with unrepaired roadworks, as it was revealed that a licence was recently refused to a company because it hadn't carried out proper "reinstatement works" in the north Cork area.
The news came during a debate on how to tackle companies which have left roads and footpaths in an “appalling state” after digging them up to lay new pipes or cables.
Independent councillor Noel Collins highlighted the issue and said there needed to be more coordination with utilities which dig up roads which had just been resurfaced or footpaths which had recently been laid down.
He said he understood there could be emergencies which would lead to such works, like a mains water pipe break, but maintained there was a level of pre-planned work which wasn't being notified in advance to the local authority.
“Contractors are being allowed to leave behind poor surfaces which rattle the teeth of motorists passing over them. These problems have been with us for far too long. In some cases the repairs are appalling,” Mr Collins said.
Fine Gael councillor John Paul O'Shea said that while a number of utilities were very good at properly repairing roads and footpaths, others were not.
“We had a situation in our own district [North Cork] where we refused a road opening licence until a utility properly repaired one it had failed to do,” Mr O'Shea said.
He didn't name which utility was involved, but then launched into an attack on Irish Water saying, in general, its reinstatement of roads was “quite poor”.
Mr O'Shea said some roads dug up by utilities in his region in 2019 were only now being properly repaired.
Fine Gael councillor Sinéad Sheppard said that in her municipal district [Cobh], they were “constantly calling [utility] contractors back to make good unsatisfactory work".
She also criticised Irish Water for not reinstating roads to a proper standard.
“There are few things that annoy people more than new footpaths or newly resurfaced roads being dug up," Fianna Fáil councillor Seamus McGrath said.
Fine Gael councillor Anthony Barry said some of the work undertaken by utilities was absolutely appalling and suggested fining them.
“Botch jobs are being done and that's totally unacceptable,” he said.
Fianna Fáil councillor Gobnait Moynihan criticised Eir for not addressing a ducting issue on the main bridge in Macroom (part of the main Cork-Killarney road), which has been going on for several months.
Mr Lucey said every year the county council sends out a list to utility companies of road resurfacing works and footpath works it intends to carry out, so that they can undertake any upgrades they wish while this is happening.
He admitted there are “different adherence levels” adopted by utilities to reinstating roads and footpaths properly and referred to the recent refusal of a road opening licence to one utility in north Cork.
Mr Lucey signalled the likelihood there will be more refusals when he told councillors: “We won't be found wanting on this.”
