Anger grows as deteriorating Tipperary streets ‘like driving on dirt roads’
Some streets in one part of Tipperary are in a “deplorable” condition, and are like driving on dirt roads, according to local representatives.
Fianna Fáil councillor Kieran Bourke made these claims at a recent district meeting, and said that the weather, as well as works on water pipes in the town had left the roads in a terrible condition.
"I do understand that we’ve had horrendous weather, and the weather has contributed to a lot of this, but the reinstatement of road crossings is deplorable,” Cllr Bourke said.
"It’s bad enough to try and drive up the streets in a car, it’s like driving on a dirt road at the moment, but try and cycle it. We as a local authority try and promote cycling, and Carrick being the home of cycling in this country.
"I have cyclists who have come to me and there’s craters and there’s potholes up and down the street, and while the weather has been a major contributing factor to this, my question to the engineers is what do you propose to do about this?” Cllr Bourke asked.
Agreeing with his council colleague, Labour Party councillor Michael ‘Chicken' Brennan said that roads in his area of Killenaule were also in a shocking state, with his own jeep having suffered because of it.
"The R689, the Coolbawn to Killenaule road, to take a word from Cllr Bourke, and that’s deplorable, because that’s what it is. We’re very lucky we haven’t had any accidents on that road,” Cllr Brennan said.
"My own jeep was in the garage this week and it’s amazing that the damage to it is all on the left hand side of my jeep, and I drive that road to Killenaule constantly, maybe two or three times a day,” he said.
In response to both councillors, district engineer Michael Scully said that an unprecedented amount of rain had fallen, which led to a faster deterioration of the roads in the area.
"We’ve been dealing with an unprececented amount of rain and water on the roads over the last few months, and it’s been non-stop, there’s water coming at angles that have never come before, and it’s very hard to mitigate or have drainage measures in place to deal with that kind of water,” he said.
"Staff are also trying to do repairs to roads where there’s still actually rain coming in on top of them and in an ideal world, you wouldn’t be doing this, but the lads are out there trying to deal with stopping water coming in on top of them whilst also trying to repair the road.
"But I agree, the Main Street in Carrick is in a bad way, and it’s a combination of everything, yes it’s been the bad weather but there’s also been a lot of works done there over the last while,” he added.
Patching up the road won’t be a good enough solution to fix it, Mr Scully explained, due to the amount of traffic that uses the road each day.
"There will be sections of the road that we will take out and resurface, it won’t be the full length of the Main Street, but we’ll be taking out the really problematic sections and resurfacing it,” he said.