Engineer blames climate change and underfunding for Cork's 'crumbling' roads

A senior executive engineer in North Cork says keeping roads open is going to get more challenging day by day

A senior council engineer says they need an immediate 30% increase in government funding just to keep pace with the damage caused by increased rainfall and this figure will probably have to rise to at least 50% as the impacts of climate change worsen. File picture: Denis Minihane

Several roads in Co. Cork are “crumbling” due to years of underfunding and the increasing impact of climate change.

A senior council engineer says they need an immediate 30% increase in government funding just to keep pace with the damage caused by increased rainfall and this figure will probably have to rise to at least 50% as the impacts of climate change worsen.

Brendan O’Gorman, a senior executive engineer in North Cork, told the Irish Examiner that the amount of rain that fell in March – the wettest on record – will take his road crews until June to repair and he fears this will increasingly become the norm as rainfall levels get even worse in the coming years.

Mr O’Gorman, who is in charge of keeping 1,650km of roads open in the Fermoy Municipal District, says his experiences are just a snapshot of what’s coming down the tracks.

“We will be playing catch-up well into June before they’re repaired. We have had crews working on Saturdays to clear the backlog,” Mr O’Gorman said.

“We are going to have to see increased government funding. Roads in County Cork have been underfunded for the last 30 years. 

We should be carrying out structural repairs to all our road network every 20 years, but because of the funding we get it’s now every 40 years.

He said the situation is further compounded by a number of factors and keeping roads open is going to get more challenging day by day.

“As costs continue to increase (for labour and materials) we are getting less and less value (from grant aid). We also have issues with our own (council) staffing (not enough) with the lack of machines and contractors available to take on jobs,” Mr O’Gorman said.

He said in his area funding enables the county council to carry out works to around 90km of its 1,650km network per year, but this needs to be an absolute minimum of 120km/year to just keep pace.

“A 30% increase in funding would keep us on an even keel. But as rainfall figures get higher with climate change we will need more, probably an extra 20% on top of that, and these increases will have to be year-on-year,” Mr O’Gorman added.

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The government is providing some ‘climate change’ funding to repair weather-damaged roads and bridges and to raise the level of roads that are in flood-risk areas. However, it’s very small money in the context of things.

For example, the Fermoy Municipal District Council budget for this in the current year was just €305,000. The repair of one bridge washed away in Araglin cost €60.000 alone.

“The government needs to look at this funding (going forward). This money is being well spent but it will not be enough in the future. There are also other issues that need addressing. We need more resources amid labour shortages nationally," Mr O'Gorman said.

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