Cork road with at least ‘250 potholes – then we stopped counting’ is an ‘accident waiting to happen’

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

An east Cork road with hundreds of potholes has been dubbed an “accident waiting to happen” with a local councillor declaring that he is very dissatisfied with the council’s response that it will be “considered” for resurfacing during the year.

In a motion at a recent meeting of the East Cork Municipal District, Cllr John Buckley called on Cork County Council to fully resurface the L7628 near Midleton from the Dungourney road as far as Billberry Cross.

“Last week I walked it with a couple of locals and the road is in an absolutely terrible state. We stopped counting at 250 potholes. It's by far one of the worst roads in East Cork. The velocity patcher has been out there a few times but at this stage I think it's doing more damage than good. It’s beyond repair,” he said.

The East Cork councillor said that when approaching the Midleton-Dungourney road from the Bilbury side, “the road has subsided into the ditch and you're nearly coming out to the centre of the road to come onto the Midleton road. It's an accident waiting to happen.”

A written response from the council’s Roads Operations and Area Services team said that the L7628-0 Bilberry Road from Harrisgrove to Ballynona will be considered for surface dressing under the Restoration Maintenance Programme in 2026.

Local Area Engineer Dave Clarke told the meeting that the most damaged section of the road “is not good enough for surface dressing, it certainly needs an overlay. So at this point and time I can't give an undertaking that it will be on this year's program but it's certainly something we would like to get done.”

Cllr Buckley told the Irish Independent he is “very dissatisfied” with the response that the road would be considered for surfacing in 2026. “This is not good enough in my opinion as this road is a real threat to driver safety. There’s one part of the road where you are nearly driving on the opposite side of the road on a bend.”

The Municipal District meeting heard a litany of potholes, road subsidence issues and blocked gullies reported by the East Cork councillors in places such as Aghada, Killeagh, Ballymacoda, Whitegate and Saleen with the problems made worse by the recent heavy rain.

Mr Clarke said the council is waiting to see what funding it will receive under the government's Severe Weather Programme this year. "So as an optimist, I'm hoping we will get more. We can see the benefit it has done, that extra funding in terms of the roads that have been done over the last two years.”