Cork council 'extremely disappointed' at not getting funds for county's crumbling roads

The council’s director of roads and transportation, said the underlying structures of some of the roads are gone as their 'cores haven’t been strengthened since donkeys and carts travelled on them 100 years ago'

Cork County Council has also been told it may only get some money for emergency safety works on the roads. File picture: Denis Minihane

A senior official has said Cork County Council is “extremely disappointed” it hasn’t received €32m from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) for urgent upgrades to crumbing national secondary roads in the region.

It has also been told it may only get some money for emergency safety works on the roads. The local authority had sought €12m to upgrade the N72 west of Ballymaquirke Cross, near Kanturk, to the Kerry ‘county bounds’ at Rathmore.

The council also looked for €10m for repairs on the N72 from Fermoy to the Co Waterford border town of Tallow and another €10m for the N71 between Ballydehob and Glengarriff.

Padraig Barrett, the council’s director of roads and transportation, said the Balltmacquirke to Rathmore section was the worst and the council has been forced to put speed restrictions on it as the road surface is so bad.

He added that the underlying structures of some of the roads are gone as their “cores haven’t been strengthened since donkeys and carts travelled on them 100 years ago” and they can’t continue to support the weight of today’s HGVs.

Niall Healy, manager of the council’s Northern Division, which oversees the two rapidly deteriorating sections of the N72, said the local authority had registered its disappointment with TII about the funding request being denied.

“We've expressed our concerns and are trying to see if we can get a solution. There are works that need to be done and they're critical. We’re likely to get only some funding for emergency sections. We'll do our best but there are no guarantees,” he told councillors representing the region.

Independent councillor Peter O’Donoghue, who has repeatedly called for urgent upgrades on the N72 between Fermoy and Tallow said he found TII’s decision “astonishing".

“There are rural roads in better condition than that and it’s a national secondary route,” he added.

Mr O’Donoghue said that several Co Waterford councillors had contacted him about the issue as this section of the N72 is far below the standard of the same route in Waterford.

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West Cork councillors have also reacted angrily to the TII decision. Mayor of County Cork, Fianna Fáil councillor Joe Carroll, described the N71 west of Bandon as “a bone shaker road".

“For years and years we have been talking about the state of the N71 and how cars are being rattled to death on parts of it,” he said.

Bantry-based Fianna Fáil councillor Patrick Gerard Murphy got unanimous support when he said the council must write to the minister for transport Darragh O’Brien outlining the desperate state of the N71, and Mr Carroll suggested they get him down to West Cork to see it for himself.