Roads funding up 3%
THE Road Works Programme 2021 amounts to €11,472,205, an increase of 3% on last year’s figure.
It relates to local roads, regional roads and national secondary and primary routes in the county. Regarding the last two categories the sums are relatively small (€118,623 and €143,996 respectively) and for maintenance only.
The overall figure also includes €2,087,516 for Dundalk Municipal District improvements.
And at its meeting last week MD members gave a general welcome for the report before them.
The news that work is to take place on a section of the Ecco Road was particularly well received.
Cllr Seán Kelly said he realised all of that road couldn’t be done in one go, while Cllr Maria Doyle said she would like to see the junction with the Carrick Road addressed in future, maybe as part of separate work scheduled for the Carrick Road.
Cllr Doyle said when trying to cross that junction there were vehicles ‘from every angle’.
Why Dublin Road was not included was queried by Cllr Maeve Yore.
She said it was a bad example of a gateway into Dundalk.
Senior Engineer Mark Johnston explained Dublin Road was in the programme originally but had been ‘scuppered’ by the route being included for cycle lanes in the Active Travel plans.
‘ There is no point resurfacing Dublin Road until this quite wide cycle lane is done. It’s a waste of money otherwise.
‘Active Travel will resurface that road anyway as part of the cycle lane.’
As regards the roads which were included in the programme, Mr Johnston said they tried to pick the worst roads with the highest traffic.