LATEST: Calls for Department to intervene as safety fears raised over Tipperary roads

Serious safety concerns over sections of the R503 and R489 dominated a lengthy and at times frustrated discussion at the February meeting of Nenagh Municipal District, with councillors calling for urgent intervention from the Department of Transport.

The condition and alignment of a stretch of the R503 near Newport was raised by Cllr Fiona Bonfield, who said two cars had gone off the road there over Christmas and warned it was “only a matter of time” before a serious accident occurred.

“I’d like the department to come down and look at this section of road before somebody is killed,” she said. “There’s such a dip there that if you’re anywhere near the yellow line, you’re gone in. There’s no ditch, no barrier, nothing. It’s really serious.”

The councillor said people were actively avoiding the road due to safety fears. “I have people avoiding driving that road because they’re afraid they’re actually going down the bank. That’s how bad it is now.”

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Supporting the call, Cllr Pamela Quirke O’Meara said the issue had been raised repeatedly over a number of years. “It’s going on years and years up there. We’ve made representations before. What is happening?”

District engineer Barry Murphy acknowledged the complexity of the problem, explaining that many roads in the area were built decades ago on poor foundations, particularly across bogland.

“Fundamentally, what we have is a road sitting on surrounding countryside that is often above the formation of the road,” he said. “The road is moving up and down. From a maintenance point of view, the aspect here is to provide edge protection but safety barriers aren’t effective on bog ground.”

Mr Murphy said the R503 was not an isolated case, pointing to similar issues on the R489 and other routes across the district.

“We probably have 100 roads like this across the region,” he said. “The conventional engineering solutions are almost prohibitively expensive if they work at all.”

He added that while the R503 surface itself is in good condition, alignment issues are not captured in pavement condition surveys. “From our budgetary point of view, we are focused almost entirely on surface, drainage and canvas works. We have almost zero opportunity to improve alignment with the budgets we have.”

Despite this, councillors insisted that the Department must see the issue first-hand.“I just want the department notified of this road,” said Cllr Bonfield. “It’s a safety issue. They need to come down and see it. After that we’ll fight for the money, but they need to realise how bad it is.”

Cllr Michael O’Meara joined the conversation, comparing road standards in Tipperary unfavourably with neighbouring counties.

“I’m slow to compare counties, but you go into Offaly and see how good their roads are and then you come back into my area in Lower Ormond and the roads are an absolute disaster,” the councillor said. “I’ve never seen roads as bad in 20 years. We’re only tinkering around the edges.”

The councillor questioned how significant upgrades had been delivered in other counties while similar projects in Tipperary had stalled. “We need to look at a holistic approach to get our roads up to the same standard as in Offaly and Galway.”

Director of Services Liam Brett rejected any suggestion that the local roads team was underperforming, stating that Tipperary had recently received the second-largest roads allocation in the country.

“The issue nationally is that allocations need to increase,” he said. “Are we getting our portion of the pie? We’re getting more than our portion of the pie. But the overall run rate isn’t fast enough.”

Officials confirmed that climate adaptation funding had been sought previously for similar bog-road issues but applications were unsuccessful.

Mr Murphy said: “The argument we made was that the rate of undulation is increasing due to more intense weather events. In my way of thinking, that is a consequence of climate change but it wasn’t successful.”

He stressed that road maintenance crews were under severe pressure following prolonged wet and cold weather.

“In the last week in one area alone, we’ve laid 50 tonnes of material in potholes,” he said.

“We’ve been patching continually since Christmas. But we are under extreme budgetary constraints. If I had extra funds, we’d have extra crews.”

However, councillors maintained that the R503 in particular required urgent escalation.“With the number of cars and buses travelling that road daily, it’s a very, very busy road,” said Cllr Bonfield.

“It’s only a matter of time before a school bus goes into the ditch. That’s why I’m asking for the Department to be contacted to come down and see it.”

Officials agreed to raise the matter again with the Department and to revert to members with further details.

The district is currently in year two of a three-year regional roads programme, with another programme to be agreed next year. However, officials cautioned that eliminating all substandard sections would take multiple funding cycles.