Tipperary County Council plans to CPO land near Tipperary Town for €4m N74 realignment

Tipperary County Council  intends to compulsory purchase approximately 6.67acres of land along the N74 Tipperary to Cashel road for a road realignment project worth more than €4million. 

The Ballyhusty Road Realignment project  will involve removing several bad bends and bumps along a stretch of the main Tipperary to Cashel Road of just over one kilometre in length. The realignment project will  start about half a kilometre from Tipperary Town. 

The council published a Compulsory Purchase Order notice in The Nationalist last week detailing the plots of land it plans to purchase from 12 landowners along this section of the N74.  

The land plots  the council intends purchasing are located in the townlands of Garranacanty, Corrogemore and Ballyhusty. The CPO notice also seeks the extinguishment of two small sections of a private right of way in the townland of Corrogemore. 

The owners, lessees and occupiers of the lands are being sent  written notice of the CPO and have until October 15 to submit any written objections to An Bord Pleanala’s headquarters at 64 Marlborough Street in Dublin. 

A copy of the CPO notice and map went on public display in Tipperary County Council’s offices in Tipperary Town, Clonmel and Nenagh last Thursday, September 3 and will remain on display at these locations  until October 15. 

Tipperary County Council senior executive engineer Oliver Tierney said the section of the N74 earmarked for realignment has been the scene of several traffic accidents and near misses in recent years.

Mr Tierney, who works in the council’s roads capital projects office,  believes most local people will welcome the realignment project  and  see the need to CPO the land.

 “They appreciate it’s a bad stretch of road,” he said.  

“Tipperary County Council is  delighted to be able to prepare the scheme to this stage and looks forward to working with the landowners and local people to improve safety on that stretch of road,” he added.  

If there are no objections to the Compulsory Purchase Order submitted to An Bord Pleanala, the appeals board will confirm the CPO and will give the green light to Tipperary County Council to  purchase the land. 

 Mr Tierney said the council will then be able to press ahead with completing the detailed design of the road realignment.  

In this scenario, he estimated the council could be in a position to go to tender to appoint a contractor early next year. 

He said the council has a budget for the road realignment approved with Transport Infrasture Ireland but will have to get approval from TII before proceeding to awarding the contract. 

If there are objections to the CPO and private right of way extinguishments, An Bord Pleanala will have to call an oral hearing to consider them.