Cork County Council shuts road after several sinkholes appear
Dave Cork Leamlara In Discovered Was Glanmire Sinkhole Mulcahy/tiktok The On Picture: The Road To East
The appearance in east Cork roads of several sinkholes has prompted renewed calls for increased Government funding for road repairs in the region.
One sinkhole was discovered on the Leamlara to Glanmire road over the weekend by local agricultural contractor Dave Mulcahy.
He placed a traffic cone next to it to warn other motorists and posted a video of it on Tiktok.
It shows a hole about a foot wide in the tarmac in the middle of the road.
But it also shows how a gaping hole several feet deep has opened up just beneath the road surface, with water flowing rapidly a few feet beneath.
It is clear that the sub-surface of the road has been completely washed away to reveal a large cavernous hole that could swallow a small car.
Local Social Democrats councillor Liam Quaide reported the sinkhole to the council's out-of-hours emergency service and a crew responded, deciding to close the road except for local access.
Two further sinkholes have also appeared between Saleen and Whitewell Cross and will be addressed.
Mr Quaide said: "The condition of some roads around areas like Leamlara is shocking, and has been made much worse by Storm Babet.
"The inadequacy of funding for road repairs from the Department of Transport has meant local residents are navigating through terrain you might expect to see in a third world country, and incurring considerable wear and tear damage to their vehicles.
"I'm in favour of a much greater proportion of transport funding being spent on active travel and public transport but we need to maintain the roads we have."
East Cork bore the brunt of infrastructural damage during Storm Babet, with Midleton devastated and dozens of roads in the region destroyed.
Of the 22 Cork county roads which suffered unprecedented structural damage during the storm, most are in east Cork.
Interim repairs were carried out to facilitate the reopening of most of them, but such was the extent of the damage to others, they remain closed pending major structural repairs.
Cork County Council estimates the cost of road repairs alone could be at least €50m.
In February, the Department of Transport announced a severe weather grant of just €13m as part of its €83m allocation to the council for the maintenance and improvement of regional and local roads.
Council chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan said the amount for storm damage repairs was nowhere near enough.
"The funding received is disappointing and will inevitably result in a situation whereby the county road network is deteriorating further instead of improving," she said at the time.
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