This article is from page 14 of the 2007-08-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
THE company constructing the En- nis bypass has been accused of a breach of contract arising from the numbers of badgers and otters killed by motorists since the opening of the road last December.
A letter released through the Free- dom of Information Act, shows that Bryan Hamilton of Jacobs, on be- half of Clare County Council, told GAMA on March 27, “We are ex- tremely disappointed to read in a report that badgers and otters have been killed in different areas on the new N18 Ennis bypass.
“We are particularly disappointed that the mammal fence that you un- dertook to erect in advance of the road opening is not complete. We consider that the lack of the suitable mammal fence…is contributing sig- nificantly to the deaths of these ani- mals on the road.
“This failure on your part to con- struct the works in accordance with your design is not only a breach of your requirement to protect wild animals…but it may also constitute a road safety hazard.”
He continued, “Given that you have failed to implement the very meas- ures you designed to reduce the im- pact of the road on these mammals
..we Shall withhold payment for these sections of the works until they are completed with the contract.”
Mr Hamilton’s letter arose from a report carried out by environmen- tal consultant Howard Williams of Inis Environmental in March 2007 who said that “badger mortalities have been recorded along the newly opened bypass in the recent past. This could be directly attributable to underpasses being unfinished…”
In the report carried out on behalf of GAMA, Mr Williams added, “It is the intention of the contractor to complete the remaining works…by the end of April 2007.
“Some mortalities have been re- corded prior to completion of the ot- ter ledges so it will be important now to monitor each culvert on a monthly basis to assess the usage by otters and that there is no otters using other areas to get onto the bypass.”
The issues have been addressed and the project manager on the by- pass, John Cunningham, has told the Department of the Enviroment that, in relation to the next section of the road, the N85, “it is GAMA’s full in- tention to have all wildlife crossings on Phase 2 of the N85 structurally complete and fully operational be- fore this section of the road opens to the public”’.