'Not good enough' - Piltown council voice road safety concerns for N24
A major road scheme in the South East has been defunded.
Councillors discussed ongoing road safety concerns at the September meeting of the Piltown Municipal District.
Area Engineer for Kilkenny County Council John Tennyson spoke about the latest roadwork updates.
He informed that the full suite of tender documents were being finalised for the Piltown Active Travel Scheme 'prior to going to tender for a contractor.'
He also spoke about the looming end of the aborted N24 Waterford to Cahir Scheme. The latest report stated: "The scheme did not receive funding to move on to phase 3 in 2025. An allocation of 80k was received to close out reports and consultant’s fees for Phase 2."
Cathaoirleach Pat Dunphy (Fine Gael) took the opportunity to speak about the scheme, saying: "Over the last week there have been four accidents on the N24 between Aglish and Mooncoin. It's just not good enough, we're waiting on serious things to happen on that stretch of road.
"I don't know the reasons why these happen, I'm just hoping that the Gardaí pass those on the Council and the Council needs to pass them on to the TII (Transport Infrastructure Ireland). That's what needs to happen."
Further on in the report were updates on neighbouring schemes;
- An application for a Judicial review of the decision by An Bord Pleanála was lodged with the High Court by 3 no applicants in May 2024. Based on current information available the timeline for the Judicial Review process will extend into 2025. Listed in Court to seek a hearing date 29th May 2025.
– Extensive SMA local repairs throughout village where existing road has failed through subsidence. Contractor appointed 26th August with a proposed start date of 8th September – expected duration circa two weeks.
- 2.4 Km of resurfacing, road marking and ancillary drainage works. Tender awarded on 29th August. Scheduled start date late September 2025 – expected duration 6 weeks.
- Funding has been announced for 2026 to progress the scheme through Phase III. Following a public meeting in the Rhu Glen on the 16th June the Roads Section met with the local committee to discuss proposals to improve safety along the N25. Extensive mulching/roadside clearance works commenced Aug 28th to improved road visibility. Works due to be completed Friday 5th Sept.
– 2.2 Km of resurfacing, road marking and ancillary drainage works. Gone to tender on 29th August. Scheduled start date Q4 2025.
Deadline for submissions on the N25 speed limit review closes on the 4th September. There has been 7 online submissions and 21 email submissions. Awaiting approval from TII. Speed limit reduction is planned to be adopted at the September Plenary meeting based on necessary outstanding approvals being obtained.
The proposal put forward for the urban speed limits was to use the CSO urban boundary to set a default 30km/hr zone. It would be at the discretion of the Local Authority Roadworks Programme Update for Piltown Municipal District Meeting to bring up certain roads to higher speed limits for operational and capacity reasons once the road met certain criteria (width, road surroundings etc.). However, an issue with legislation was discovered that would not permit this be caried out as planned. The new proposal is to set the 30km/hr limits under special speed limit bye laws (same as what has been done previously) with limits set at the discretion of the Local Authority. Awaiting further guidance from the Department and the LGMA.
Currently doing Detailed Design and preparing drawings for CPO. CPO final package due this week and Detail Design Package due for review this week also.
Preliminary Design Drawings been discussed with WCCC for agreement before Section 85 signed off.
