I welcome today’s announcement of €14.87 million for Offaly and €13.44 million for Laois for upgrades to our existing regional and local roads. This includes an allocation for climate change adaptation works for roads vulnerable to the impact of climate change and severe weather events.
In Laois, there is a further €148,000 for Active Travel, and this, together with funding for safety projects, including the provision for signage to support lower speed limits in housing areas, rural speed limit signage and “safe passing” cycle signage, means that more and more people will feel safer to use our roads for walking and cycling”.
Cllr Mark Hackett of Edenderry Municipal District joins me in welcoming the funding. He is particularly delighted as he made representation to the Department last year for funding for the Edenderry Inner Relief Road, and today this sees a further allocation of €2.2 million for Phase 1 and Phase 2 of this project.
He is also encouraged to see the allocation of €800,000 for the “Testing Roads Over Peatlands Pilot” Scheme. Peatlands account for 16% of the total area of County Offaly and there is great difficulty associated with maintaining roads over such lands with issues such as distortion and transverse cracking arising. There is a high concentration of roads over peatlands in the Edenderry Municipal District and we both hope to see this reflected in how this funding is distributed.
Read the full Press Release with allocations on gov.ie