Road is left in deplorable state following works
WHILE Esmonde Road was closed to traffic for quite some time to allow contractors acting on behalf of Irish Water to install a new foul sewer as part of a €16million investment in infrastructure within the town, now that it has reopened, motorists have said that it is almost undriveable as a result of huge potholes and a poor road surface.
Cllr John O’Rourke described the road as being left in an ‘inhumane state’ and said that he has had numerous calls from motorists in the area worried about doing damage to their cars. Cllr O’Rourke questioned whether it was going to be a similar case to routes being used by contractors on the bypass that are being allowed fall into disrepair despite assurances.
‘I’m wondering is this going to be the same story as with the secondary routes being used for the bypass,’ he said. ‘In that case, BAM (the contractors) assured us that they would be filling in and fixing these secondary routes as they went along, but that hasn’t happened. In my opinion, Irish Water need to take responsibility for the damage to the road. The job needed to be done, but they’ve left the road in tatters and I don’t see why our budget should have to be used to fix it.’
Senior Executive Engineer Tadhg O’Corcora said that the road surface on Esmonde Road at the moment is only temporary and that Irish Water, the contractor and the council would be working on it as soon as possible.
‘ The contractor has done a temporary restoration,’ he said. ‘Later when everything settles, they will permanently reinstate the trench and the road surface will be fixed.’
Mr O’Corcora did say, however, that there was no definitive timeline for when this would happen.