Council to spend €33 million on road infrastructure

Traffic calming in towns and villages will account for some of the approximately €33m Westmeath County Council will spend on works relating to roads and transport this year, members of the council heard at their March meeting.

Damien Grennan, senior engineer, setting out priorities, said a focus was to be on investment in road safety improvements, which include traffic calming in towns and villages, public lighting infrastructure upgrade works.

“This investment will assist us in further improving the resilience and safety of our transportation network and to realise the council’s objectives as set out in our road safety and climate action plans,” he said.

Cllr Denis Leonard said roads in Westmeath are always better than of those in neighbouring counties, but lamented that the public transport investment here was nowhere near roads investment.

Cllr David Jones was hoping for detail on grant aid announced the previous week, including €100,000 on the road from Cavestown and €100,000 at Collinstown NS.

Cllr Frankie Keena raised a query on Glasson for which, he said, money has been long awaited for road surfacing. “The community are anxious to get their road surface up to a good standard,” he stated, adding that a “complete overhaul” was required to road surfaces there. He also queried whether anything was being done to address noise levels from the Athlone Relief Road, while Cllr Vinnie McCormack asked what €2.5m allocated for the N4 was to be used for.

Cllr Alfie Devine asked about progress with the Castlepollard all-town traffic calming plan; Cllr Niall Gaffney was keen to know what works are planned from the €850,000 allocation announced for the Cloughan to Billistown Road. The cathaoirleach, Cllr Liam McDaniel, asked if funding had been announced for the N52 Kilbeggan, Tullamore Road.

Responding, Mr Grennan told Cllr Jones the Cavestown to Kilrush allocation will allow the council take the scheme from phase one to phase two, while in response to Cllr Gaffney’s query, he said that would allow the National Roads Office deal with legacy landowner deals, and finalise the work.

For Cllr Keena, he had an assurance that pavement works are planned for Glasson, a noise action plan has been prepared by the environment department for the Athlone Relief Road; however, it was going to require extensive investment to put in any sort of noise alleviation measures or mitigation measures on the road.

To Cllr Devine, he undertook to look into the specifics on traffic plans for Castlepollard, and to the cathaoirleach, he said no allocation has been awarded for work on the Kilbeggan to Tullamore Road.

Director of services Deirdre Reilly responded on the N4 saying it would allow consultants continue with their design and surveys for the stretch between Mullingar and Longford.