Cork county gets third lowest allocation of roads funding in the country
Annual national TII funding for Ireland's largest county has been announced, but it's €1,000 per km below the average for all local authorities in the country.
County Cork has been awarded over €83 million in national funding for roads projects in 2023, but this would have been €12 million more if the country’s largest county had been allocated the average amount granted to local authorities, a county council meeting has heard.
The amount given to Cork County Council by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) is €1,000 per km less than the national average of what was given out to local authorities nationwide.
County Cork has over 11,740km of regional and local roads and 3,000 bridges to maintain.
Major projects
€60.4 million was awarded by TII for the completion of large road projects including the N22 Baile Bhuirne to Macroom and the proposed N28 Ringaskiddy to Cork, with just over €1 million awarded for Active Travel, €3.85 million awarded for greenways and €5.8 million given to pavement upgrades.
€39 million was allocated for the completion of the N22 Baile Bhuirne to Macroom, an 8km stretch of which opened last December. Although it was then reported that work would be completed halfway through 2023, it is now thought that the entire project will be completed by the end 2023, Cork County Council’s Director of Roads & Transportation Pádraig Barrett told the meeting.
N28 Ringskiddy progress
30% of the necessary land acquisition for the N28 Ringaskiddy to Cork has been completed and over 40 archaeologists are currently working on the project, while a contractor has not yet been approved, Mr Barrett said.
That project received €19 million in funding, enough for it to continue to progress, he said.
There is “quite a lot of work to be done in terms of appointments before we go to tender next year,” Mr Barrett said.
Mallow bypass disappointment
However, several councillors slammed the TII’s allocation of €100,000 for a Mallow bypass, which is a “fraction” of the €1.4 million the council had applied for to get the project off the ground, Cllr Gearóid Murphy said.
“The project is now on life support and at best will be paused for a year,” the Kanturk-Mallow FF councillor said. “It’s nothing short of a disgrace that there’s this disconnect between what we’re being told to do by the department and the funding being given to do so. It’s like being told to dig a hole in the ground and then being given a toothpick to do it with.”
Although some site investigations and a route report have been completed, €100,000 is not enough money to get the project through the planning application stage this year.
Active travel: a waterfront route from Little Island past Dunkettle?
€1.1 million in active travel funding will be used to start construction of the so-called Clare O'Leary Walk on the Glasslinn Road in Bandon, and to make an options appraisal for a route from Glengarriff town to Glengarriff National Park.
It will also be used to study the viability of a waterfront active travel route from Little Island past the Dunkettle interchange towards Cork city.
Greenways at a variety of different stages have been funded:
A variety of regional and local road and pavement upgrades countywide were also funded, with Bantry relief road expected to be “shovel-ready” by the end of 2023.
The €83 million in funds saw an increase of 8.39% over 2022 funding, bringing the overall amount of money granted to a “pre-Celtic Tiger” level of funding, Mr Barrett noted.
However, historically high inflation and energy costs would have a “significant impact on the quantity of work that will be delivered,” he said, in what would be a challenging year.
“The annual rate of price growth is going to interfere with electricity prices and gas prices, and there’s a shortage of skilled labour and key trades. Cork County Council advertised for general operatives last Friday and the number of suitable candidates coming forward is a huge challenge to us.”
“More funding is needed to improve and upgrade the road network.”
And no mention whatsoever of the N71 national secondary route, which beyond Bandon is in a shocking state of disrepair.