Galway County councillors criticise delays on long-standing projects

A budget of €39 million for roads in County Galway has been approved by councillors – a €10 million increase on the funds available in 2021.

Athenry Oranmore area councillors gave their backing to the 2022 Roads Programme, welcoming funding for safety works but lamenting continued delays to long-standing projects.

Cllr Jim Cuddy (Ind) hit out at the lack of progress on a relief road for Claregalway and blasted the Department of Transport and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) for failing to address increasing traffic levels in the village.

“The Department of Transport and TII need to come forward with a plan for this. As late as last night, I had a response from the Minister, who had deferred to the TII and they said [a relief road for Claregalway] was not in planning, full-stop.

“How long do we have to make representations before the penny drops in Dublin that this is needed. Reference is made every day to traffic in Claregalway on AA Roadwatch and TII still has no proposals for it,” said Cllr Cuddy, adding that other areas with less traffic had relief roads built.

“We were told when the motorway opened that it would resolve the problem and we know it hasn’t,” he continued.

A motion from Cllr Cuddy, calling on Galway Oireachtas members to impress on the Minister for Transport the need for such a road was unanimously backed by area councillors.

Cllr James Charity (Ind) said Oireachtas members were failing to address the problem and added: “Claregalway has had poor national representation on the failure to deliver that bypass”.

Meanwhile, concern was raised that Athenry Oranmore Municipal District (MD) continued to get a smaller proportion of roads funding than the other four MDs – with the allocation based on the length of road in any one area.

Cllr Gabe Cronnelly (Ind) said traffic from other areas of the county had to pass through Athenry Oranmore to access the city, adding it was no wonder that roads in the area required so much work.

“People from Ballinasloe, Loughrea and Tuam all have to access our roads to access Galway and there is an inequity of funds for the amount of traffic on our roads,” said Cllr Cronnelly.

The meeting of area councillors heard that €50,000 had been allocated for safety works at Cregmore Bridge and the junction at Knockdoe.

€50,000 has been allocated for the installation of traffic lights at Cregmore, with a further €40,000 ringfenced for an upgrade at Knockdoe junction.

A grant of €1.9 million has been allocated to the Athenry Oranmore MD for restoration and improvement of roads, with a further €525,000 for restoration and maintenance.

A recently introduced Climate Change Adaption and Resilience Grant has delivered a further €127,000 for the area to carry out flood relief works, including the installation of a storm pipe to alleviate road flooding on the R339 at Geraghty Motors.

€40,000 has been granted to install a new storm line and raise the road close to Temple Cross on the way into Gorteen Village; €25,000 has been made available to address flooding at Gloves; while €27,000 will be used to upsize a storm drain and soakway to alleviate flooding in Corrandulla.