Safety works at Tipperary junction still stalled after nearly 20 years
A busy north Tipperary road that’s in a very poor condition has been cited as a priority for a number of years, but has yet to see any work carried out on it.
At the January meeting of the Thurles Municipal District, independent councillor Jim Ryan asked for an update on the road at Turtulla Cross in Thurles, saying that representatives in the area don’t know where they stand in relation to getting work done on the road.
“What’s frustrating for me is that we seem to be getting the same response back all the time, I don’t know where we’re at or what’s going on with it,” he said.
"Every time Turtulla Cross is raised with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) – I’ve raised it with them four times, and the first time was 2007 – and even back then they said it was a priority and that it’s at detailed design stage.
"All I can tell you is since the recent meeting in December with the TII, there’s been two further accidents at Turtulla Cross. Where do we stand? It just seems that we’re at detailed design stage and are having discussions with landowners year after year,” Cllr Ryan said.
The independent councillor asked the district engineers what was holding the project up, and what could be done to solve the issue.
"Are we being blocked by someone, are the TII not telling the full story? I don’t know what’s going on but Turtulla Cross has been raised by every councillor since I’ve been a councillor and every time, the same response comes back from the TII.
"People deserve to know where we stand, and people who have been involved in accidents deserve to know that something’s going to happen,” Cllr Ryan added.
In response, a roads section representative said the council would seek a fresh update from TII and determine whether delays were due to local issues or national-level obstacles.
"I will ask the TII for an update on that and I’ll let you know as soon as I have it,” Cllr Ryan was told.
"If there are any roadblocks on the scheme, they’re not simple, but I’ll have to check if it’s a local issue or if it’s a TII issue that’s holding up that scheme,” the meeting heard.
Cllr Ryan added that the project had been on the agenda for almost 20 years, and that it shouldn’t take that long to address the concerns that motorists have.