Council/ESB can’t bridge Rooves row
ESB UPGRADED BRIDGE STRUCTURE BUT REFUSES TO REPAIR SURFACE
THE vexed question of whether a bridge is a separate entity from the road that runs along it, is playing on the minds of Cork councillors these days.
The crux of their problem is that the ESB appears to own Rooves Bridge in Coachford but the semi-state company seems not at all keen on owning the potholed road that runs along the bridge.
This leaves a quandary as to who will repair the road surface on the bridge which is 300 metres long and requires €180,000 worth of work.
At the Blarney Macroom municipal district meeting two months ago, Cllr Des O’Grady (SF) sought an update on works which were to be carried out on the bridge. While works were advertised and signs were put in place no actual work took place.
Senior executive engineer, James Dwyer said at that meeting that, in December 2016, a contractor on behalf of the ESB applied to Cork County Council for a road closure licence to allow them to “carry out works on the ESB owned structure at Rooves Bridge and Lee Bridge.”
Work was carried out, but then the surface of the bridge needed to be repaired at a cost of €180,000. Mr Dwyer told councillors the council had no budget for this.
Councillors at the meeting were not happy that the ESB was refusing to cough up money to repair the road surface of the bridge.
Cllr Des O’Grady (SF) was adamant that the council shouldn’t spend “one cent” on any works as, he said the “ESB are the legal owners of the structure.”
“The ESB have made enormous profits so why should we dip into our restoration fund for this,” he said.
Cllr Kevin Conway (Ind) said: “If they (ESB) own the structure then why are they saying they don’t own the surface of it.”
Fast forward two months at the April meeting and Mr Dwyer didn’t have any good news for councillors. He said he had met with ESB officials and while “more information” is to be furnished to Cork County Council regarding ownership of the bridge, the outlook didn’t look too good as the ESB were digging in their heels and were “firmly of the view that the resurfacing works was not their remit.”
Councillors were certainly not happy with this news and Cllr Michael Creed (FG) said that the ESB had carried out works on the structure. “The surface of the bridge is really in an awful condition. I’m getting a lot of phone calls about it,” he said.