€1.65m for north Kerry road project
MINISTER of State for Transport, Tourism and Sport Brendan Griffin TD has confirmed that €1.65million will go towards works at Mountcoal on the N69 from Tralee to Listowel.
The works will cover resurfacing works over four kilometres on the main artery from Tralee to the north of the county.
The funding – which Minister Griffin said will be made available by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to Kerry County Council (KCC) – is in addition to the €19million announced before Christmas for Kerry’s National Roads this year under the TII’s first trance of roads funding.
The tender documents are almost complete, Minister Griffin said, and KCC is hoping the works can go to tender this February.
The Minister’s Fine Gael colleague Councillor Mike Kennelly has welcomed the funding for what he described as one of the worst stretches of national road in the county.
“It’s something I’ve been lobbying hard for over the past, I’d say, 14 months,” he told The Kerryman this week.
“There’s a lot of traffic on the road for a few reasons. You have people from north Kerry travelling into Tralee for work – and vice versa, obviously – and you also have people coming to visit Listowel, particularly on the back of it being named recently as Ireland’s tidiest town.
“People, if there was no car coming against them, were inclined to drive on the middle of the road to avoid the deterioration and potholes on the road in by the ditches.
“It’s fantastic news for north Kerry; it’s a great New Year’s present.”