€2.5 million for work on N81 black spot
THE sum of €3.7 million has been granted by Transport Infrastructure Ireland for the upgrade of national primary and secondary roads in County Wicklow this year.
The road to benefit from the largest allocation is the N81 which will see works to the tune of €2.5 million carried out on the Knockroe Bend realignment scheme. It is expected that the realignment will make this section of the N81 much safer for road users.
According to Baltinglass Municipal District Councillor Jim Ruttle, this work has been sought for some time.
‘ This is an exceedingly dangerous bend about 100 meteres on the Baltinglass side of Hollywood. It has been the subject of a lot of archaeological work and surveys to get to this stage. I have no doubt that it will have huge implications for safety as there have been many, many accidents there over the years. It is great news all round,’ he said.
Smaller upgrades valued at €10,000 each will also be carried out on the N81 at Hangman’s Bend, Irishtown, Tuckmill and Whitestown Lower.
Other improvement alloca- tions will see €100,000 spent on N11 Kilmacanogue Parallel Service Road, and pavement renewals to the value of €700,000 while €100,000 has been granted for local authority support for improvement works in 2018.
The balance of the allocation - €279,477 will be spent on maintenance and will include €115,941 allocated to motorway lighting, as well as €138,336 allocated for lighting, ordinary and winter maintenance on secondary roads.
€25,200 has been set aside for local authority support for maintenance.