Major works continue on ‘horrendous and complicated’ Tipperary road
Work on a “horrendous” and “complicated” road in Tipperary must be coordinated with a major windfarm development, councillors have been told.
At the April meeting of the Nenagh Municipal District (MD), district engineer Barry Murphy said that work on the R503 road that runs from Thurles to Newport and into Limerick will be the biggest project roads teams in the district take on this year, and added that council teams would have to link in with the developers of the Upperchurch Windfarm.
"The biggest job that the contractors have by distance is going to be on the R503, and that’s going to have to be coordinated with the Upperchurch Windfarm, so at the moment, the windfarm have been on the R503 for about a month, but they’ve made good progress in very difficult circumstances there,” Mr Murphy said.
"The length of that project is about 20 kilometres, and they have about four kilometres laid at this point, but crews are doing work facing the Thurles direction. But that will carry on throughout this year, and we’ll do our works as and when we can get in and coordinated around that,” he added.
The Upperchurch Windfarm is currently being developed by Ecopower, who are digging up the road to run cables to support the windfarm’s operation.
In response to Mr Murphy’s statement on the road project, Fianna Fáil councillor John Carroll asked if the council were happy with the progress that the windfarm contractor had made on the road so far.
"In relation to the R503, are we happy with it so far? I know the weather has been inclement, but are we happy with the progress?
"And more importantly, in terms of the remedial works, for any damage to sections of the road as a result of the construction, just that that could be done without too much upheaval or too much damage to vehicles,” Cllr Carroll said.
Labour Party councillor Fiona Bonfield said that she had been receiving questions about the works on the R503, with constituents asking her about the project.
In response to the councillors, Mr Murphy said that the works on the road were very difficult.
"The R503 is certainly the biggest job and most difficult job that we have in the district at the moment, but it’s not a council job per se, it’s a private developer, but our involvement has been that we have to give a road opening license and that permits the work to proceed under certain conditions,” he said.
A road opening license is needed when a contractor needs to do a job under a road or a footpath, and they need to seek council permission to do it.
“From a technical point of view, it’s a complicated project, from a construction point of view, it’s horrendous in anybody’s books. You have a very busy road, it’s only six metres wide and the contractor has, in effect, a three metre working space and that makes it very, very difficult,” Mr Murphy explained.
The council are continuing to supervise the contractors to make sure the work is of a good quality, and the council have regular meetings with the contractors and developers to deal with any issues that may arise, the councillors were told.