This article is from page 8 of the 2014-03-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
THE € 200,000 repair works to the main road to Loop Head are to be completed later this week.
The main Kilbaha road has been closed since February 1, when high tides and a storm eroded two parts of the regional road previously made vulnerable by December and January storms.
Local businessman and farmer Bernie Keating said that the local people are delighted with the temporary works, but there was a lot of frustration locally getting to this point.
“The ESB brought in crews from England and Northern Ireland when we had a storm three weeks ago, and within a week everything was back up and running. There are shortterm contractors and tradesmen in every parish in the county crying out for work. Why weren’t they brought in to help out the council workers? Considering the scale of the damage in the county it would have been impossible for the county council workers to handle it,” he said.
“It is ten weeks this weekend since the first storm and the road has been closed for seven of those ten weeks by the council for health and safety reasons,” he added.
“One other concern, after storm Darwin only one county was declared a national disaster and that was Kilkenny. Isn’t it amazing that the minister is from Kilkenny?”
Local senior engineer Cyril Feeney said that the road should be open by the end of the week.
While a small amount of water came in and beach shingle was forced up on to the road with the tide last Monday, no significant damage was done.
The council has already begun € 200,000 worth or interim repair work on the road which included the installation of rock armour along the coastline, and are now completing a small retainer concrete wall between the rock armour and the road.
The engineer said that it will take months before a more permanent work can begin as the council have to go through tender, procurement and planning process.
“Some might say the € 200,000 interim work is a waste of money given that we have to do a million permanent job, but what is that against the local economy, agriculture and tourism,” said Mr Feeney.