Rural Waterford roads cannot be maintained with current funding
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Waterford Council have said the amount of funding they have been granted for road strengthening is inadequate to maintain the network.
Gabriel Hynes, Senior Engineer with Waterford City & County Council said this week that the situation is serious, particularly in rural areas:
“While our allocation this year is welcome, we looked for an additional ten million for strengthening from the Department.
“The reality is if we continue to underinvest as we have been, we will not be able to maintain the road network to an acceptable standard. With our current expenditure for strengthening, we’ll get around to each road at a rate of about 1 in 50 years, that isn’t acceptable.
“We need an additional 15 million every year for the next 20 years to ensure we can maintain our network."
Mr. Hynes outlined that rural roads are experiencing increased wear and tear as a result of a number of factors:
“We have a lot more rural houses, a lot more severe weather events and we have a significant number of additional HGVs on our rural and regional roads from the agricultural community, larger farms, milk and delivery lorries. All this is putting additional pressure on our rural road network.”
He said that Waterford Council have invested significantly in staff and machinery, however without further investment from government, roads will continue to fall below an acceptable standard:
“We as an executive can’t deliver what the public expect unless we have a proper funding source. We have invested significantly in man power and machinery in the last number of years. There's great work being done on the ground and we have significant investment in our machinery yard."
He added that the problem is not unique to Waterford, and that neighbouring local authorities such as Cork are also struggling to maintain road networks due to a lack of funding from government.
Comeragh District councillors offered reaction to the issue last week.
Cllr Declan Clune cautioned that the situation could reach a critical point if the economy declines, stressing the importance of addressing it beforehand.
“My biggest concern is if there’s a downturn in the economy, what’s going to happen then?
“There will be a downturn. It mightn’t be this year, next year or the year after, but it will happen. So we’re going to be in trouble when that happens if we’re already behind the curve now."
Mr. Hynes responded: “At a time when we’re running surpluses in our national economy, there should be more coming to our regional and local roads.”
Cllr Catherine Burke asked the Comeragh Council to write to government on the issue, whilst Cathaoirleach of the district, Cllr Seanie Power said: “This is a drop in the ocean compared to what we need for our roads. The roads are in tatters and I feel this year they are in a worse state than ever before, especially in my own area where we got hit bad with frost and snow.”
All the councillors in the district commended Waterford Council’s road department and ground staff for their work despite the lack of funding they are receiving.
