'Extra €20m annually for the next ten years' needed for Waterford roads

An additional €20 million would be needed annually for the next ten years to bring roads in Waterford up to a ‘reasonable standard’ according to council officials.

Funding of €24.7 million was awarded to Waterford City and

County Council for regional and local road works in 2024. Of this, €10.75M was allocated to roads programmes within the Dungarvan Lismore District, allowing for 35km of road strengthening works (tarmac) and 18km of surface dressing.

From the budget, €175k was allocated towards low-cost safety schemes and over €300k was allocated towards bridge repair works.

At the February meeting of the Dungarvan Lismore District, the allocation from the Government was criticised by Cllr Conor McGuinness, who said that the 2024 programme is ‘trying to make the best out of an inadequate allocation’.

Querying the figures given the extent of works needed in the area, Cllr McGuinness asked what level of funding Waterford should be receiving.

Senior engineer at Waterford City and County Council, Gabriel Hynes, said that strengthening works are what is needed to get roads to an ‘acceptable standard’ and that this would then be maintained via surface dressing.

According to Mr Hynes, the allocation for strengthening works is not adequate and has not been for the past 20 years.

“We get an allocation for the city and county of roughly €10 million for RI works, which is strengthening works. If we want to get our roads up to an acceptable standard, we’d really need to be getting three times that.

“We would need to be getting €30 million a year as a local authority to get the backlog of road deficiencies up to a steady state. That’s the funding we would need annually. We would need an extra €20 million annually for the next ten years at least to bring our roads up to a reasonable standard,” Mr Hynes outlined.