North Cork Fine Gael Councillor John Paul O’Shea has welcomed the announcement by the Department of Transport of the 2024 Regional & Local Roads Grant allocations. A total of €83,199,560 has been allocated by the Department of Transport in respect of the maintenance and improvement of regional and local roads in Cork County this year.
Cllr. O’Shea welcomed the funding saying “This investment is essential in ensuring safe connectivity across our local and regional road network. It will benefit towns, villages and communities throughout the county by further enhancing connectivity, supporting businesses and making it easier and safer to travel.”
A total of €42,496,500 will be allocated for restoration improvement and maintenance for roads, with €1,887,840 dedicated to bridge rehabilitation works.
This year’s allocation also includes a severe weather grant of €13m to address the effects of recent severe weather and to carry out essential repairs and road restoration works in the aftermath of Storm Babet. This is the first funding allocation made to the Council to enable road repairs to commence. Having prepared a comprehensive and thorough repairs programme on a countywide basis, the Council estimated the cost of restoration works to reach €50m.
This year’s allocation is broadly consistent with the 2023 allocation which represented one of the most significant years of funding investment in Cork roads in recent times. While the overall allocation is positive, the allocation under the ‘Specific Improvement Grants’ category sees six of the proposed eleven priority projects being approved for funding this year. Funding to Cork County Council in this category is reduced by 33%, meaning many priority projects which were capable of being advanced will not now proceed in 2024.”
Full details of the allocation to Cork County are below with specific allocations to roads in Kanturk/Mallow Municipal District highlighted in yellow:
