Cork road dubbed 'worst stretch in country' due for upgrade
Narrow Too It Need Picture: Condition, Of Heavy Vehicles For To N73 The Use To The Poor Is Larry Road Goods Which Said In Cummins And Is National Many Be
Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has committed to fund road safety works on the N73 Mallow to Mitchelstown road, and a tender for the upgrade could be issued later this year.
The condition of the road, which links to the N72 at Mallow to form the main route from Killarney to Dublin, has long been cited as potentially hazardous to those using it.
Since mid-2020, there have been numerous instances in which motorists, particularly truck drivers, have reported blown out tyres and other damage to their vehicles as a result of driving along it.
The road’s width is currently insufficient for many of the heavy goods vehicles which need to use it.
Despite countless warnings of the accident potential posed by the 34km road, several previous applications for upgrades have proved unsuccessful, and only minor improvements have been completed on it to date.
At a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee this morning, North Cork Labour TD Seán Sherlock, who has lobbied consistently for improvements to be made to the road, said the commitment from TII was welcome.
However, he said the earmarked funding figure of €900,000 was still "disappointing."
He invited Mr Walshe to visit the area and view the road's poor condition for himself.
"It is only by travelling the road you would realise how awful a stretch of road it is — it is arguably the worst national secondary road in the country,” he told TII CEO, Peter Walshe.
In response, Mr Walshe said the reason approval wasn’t given last year was to “have certainty around the funding."
“We have that now,” he said.
“And for that reason, we will be approving Cork County Council and advising them to go to tender and they can rest assured, like we will be with them as partners in the delivery of the project, once we're committed to it we're committed to it.”
"That's good news. But we're not there yet,” Mr Sherlock said.
"There is still a long way to go in terms of ensuring that the tender when it's done that we can get boots on the ground. So this campaign is ongoing we’ll keep at we’ll keep working at it."