Major road projects advance in north Tipperary as Council prepares for works
Progress is being made on a number of major road projects in one north Tipperary district, with works to start on at least two of them by the end of the year.
At the September meeting of the Thurles Municipal District, councillors were given a presentation by the district’s engineering team about the progress of three major roads projects within the district.
One of the projects is the Latteragh Bends project, which will see a €30million investment in the road infrastructure to make the route, between Borrisoleigh and Nenagh, safer for all.
In an update issued last month, it was confirmed that Tipperary County Council has secured all the land needed to realign the dangerous stretch of road.
At this month’s district meeting, the engineer said that it is expected that a contractor would be appointed by Christmas, but that works would get underway properly in the new year.
Another major project, the Thurles Inner Relief Road, will be tendered for shortly, the engineer said.
"This will provide a link between the N62, and the Mill Road, and is just over a kilometer in length,” he explained.
"There will be a new bridge crossing over the River Suir, and there’ll be some flood mitigation works along the River Suir. All the land required has been acquired by the council,” the district engineer added.
It is expected that tender documents will be issued to a consultant shortly, with hopes that the documents will be sent out by the end of this month, councillors were told.
The biggest project – the proposed Thurles bypass – is currently at a standstill, the meeting was told, with a preferred route having been selected since 2011.
"This is one that everyone’s aware of, Thurles has two national roads that meet in the centre of the town, and that leads to a lot of congestion, there’s only one bridge over the River Suir, and that creates a lot of congestion in the town, as the N62 is a very important national secondary route,” councillors were told.
"This project has been in the pipeline for some time, and was designed before the Celtic Tiger crash. The Council executive and the councillors all see this as an important route for the town, and we’ve had a preferred route corridor in reserve since 2011”.
Councillors were told that for the scheme to get back on the agenda, the project needs to be included on the Government’s National Development Plan (NDP).
"Until we get it back on the National Development Plan, we cannot progress the scheme,” the engineer said.
"We are at the start of the process, so we will be going back to reassess the preferred route, the preferred transport solution, we’ll have to get a fresh set of eyes, it's a long process getting from that point to getting boots on the ground,” he added.
However, the meeting was informed that it’s important to get the project back on the NDP so that works can begin again on bypassing the town.