Cost of fixing Cork's roads is close to €1bn, according to council
Mayor of County Cork Joe Carroll said the county needs nearly €1bn in funding to bring its roads up to an acceptable standard. Picture: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision
It will take nearly €1bn to bring the roads in Co Cork up to an acceptable standard after years of underinvestment and damage caused by climate events, senior council figures have warned.
Cork County Council has estimated that the most recent weather events in early January added at least another €11m of repairs to a road network that was already in dire need of major investment.
Padraig Barrett, the council’s director of roads and transportation services, said that while engineers are still assessing damage, the repair bill is likely to be around €10m for the big freeze in early January and another €1m for the more recent Storm Éowyn.
By the end of this month, he hopes to have a final costing for all recent weather damage and, at that stage, the council will submit a detailed inventory to the Department of Transport in the hope it will pay for repairs.
Mr Barrett confirmed that all damaged roads are open “but a lot are in poor shape".
“The bulk of the damage was caused by persistent freezing and thawing. Compacted snow and ice ripped through the surfaces of roads,” he said.
Compared to other counties, Cork escaped the worst of Storm Éowyn.
"There is now more substantial rain in the southwest and along the west coasts. But it’s becoming worse, particularly in Cork and Kerry, which are getting a battering. Met Éireann figures substantiate that,” Mr Barrett said.
Mayor of County Cork Joe Carroll said the county needs nearly €1bn in funding to bring its roads up to an acceptable standard.
He said years of successive government underfunding had left much of its 12,000km of roads in a desperate state.
For decades, the county has received less funding per kilometre of road compared to other counties.
“Cork County Council has been completely underfunded by government over the years for road maintenance and improvements. This is unacceptable and we have told our newly-elected TDs that they have to fight in the Dáil for more money for our roads,” Mr Carroll said.
He said that damage caused by increased severe weather is only compounding the underlying problem because many roads are already so substandard it’s easier to destroy them.
“On top of what we need to catch up, the government must also ringfence money for counties that are going to suffer more from climate change,” Mr Carroll added.
