Damage to Tipperary road caused by Storm Claudia could cost over €140,000 to repair
The cost of repairing a Tipperary road that was damaged during Storm Claudia could cost over €140,000.
During the storm, a wall near Toberaheena Well on the Marlfield Road in Clonmel fell away, taking a section of the road with it.
Crews from Tipperary County Council were on the scene after the collapse, and have put diversions in place to keep road users safe until the road is repaired.
At the November meeting of the Clonmel Borough District, councillors were told that the council had applied to the Department of Transport for emergency funding to repair the road, but that the cost to fix it could be more than €100,000.
"On Toberaheena Well, at the moment we’re working on a cost estimate for the repair works, and then we’ll submit an application to the Department for its reinstatement of the retaining wall, we’re very lucky that the diversion there is quite simple and it isn’t too long or too much of an inconvenience for anyone,” councillors were told.
"We contacted the Department of Transport on the Monday morning seeking to secure funding for the repair of that, we were on it straight away, but the financial implications of it will likely be significant,” engineering staff said.
"A similar issue in the Tipperary-Cahir-Cashel district took €140,000 to remediate, we obviously don’t have those type of financial resources internally so we have to get something from the Department and we’ve made contact in relation to that.”
It is likely that the road will remain closed for an extended period of time, members from the council’s engineering team said.
"We will look, after the inspection at a comprehensive solution, we will have to look at the whole thing at this stage, but I would say the road will be closed for a period, and if you could bear with us in that regard,” engineers said.
"We’re lucky we have a way around it, but it could be closed for a period,” they added.
The road section sits beside Toberaheena Well, a protected monument, dating back to the early 1900s. It is a recorded monument on the Archaeological Survey of Ireland.
The name Toberaheena is commonly thought to mean Friday’s well (Tober na hAoine) although some records suggest that it could translate to ‘well of the mill stream’.
Toberaheena was used as a place to wash, with many coming to wash on Fridays, giving rise to the name Friday’s Well.