Busy road can't be improved until far-off flood scheme is progressed
Councillors in South Mayo have said improvement works at a busy crossroads cannot wait for an “intrinsically linked” flood relief scheme to proceed.
Cllr Damien Ryan put forward a notice of motion at last week’s Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District meeting seeking clarification from Mayo County Council's roads office over proposed works at The Neale crossroads. Cllr Ryan said he wanted "absolute certainty" that these works would be prepared over the summer and submitted to the Department of Transport in time for consideration for the 2026 Roadworks Programme.
In a written response, the council's Acting Head of Roads Conrad Harley said there is a preliminary design complete but the works are contingent on progress being made on the flood relief scheme.
“The proposed works are intrinsically linked with a flood relief scheme at the same location. Substantial progress has been made with these flood alleviation works and discussions are ongoing between the Office of Public Works and the Department of Transport with a view to progressing the project.”
Mr Harley said agreement is required on funding for the scheme and once it is secured the full solution for this location can progress. He added that temporary works may take place pending the completion of the full scheme.
“This is a busy regional road with a traffic count in excess of 4,000 vehicles per day, therefore a low-cost safety scheme will be submitted to the Department for the construction on an interim solution,” Mr Harley concluded.
Cllr Ryan said he hoped the reference to 4,000 vehicles was "a typo" as he believed the traffic count to be closer to 14,000 per day.
“Funding was received for the Annfield crossroads and they have the same statistics as The Neale crossroads, so we can’t stand idly by waiting for the flood scheme to happen,” he said.
Cllr Michael Burke supported his colleague.
“The flood relief scheme is on the long finger and we can’t wait for these projects to come together."
