Campaign underway over fears main county road could be downgraded

A campaign, backed by local councillors and Roscommon County Council executive is underway to seek an upgrade of the N61 - which links Athlone, Roscommon, Tulsk, and Boyle - to a national primary route.

The calls come against the backdrop of concerns that this national secondary road could face downgrading under the Government’s National Roads 2040 plan.

During a presentation on the Strategic Review report on the N61 at a recent council meeting, Senior Executive Engineer with Roscommon County Council Alan Mulryan told councillors that the National Roads 2040 as currently set out “effectively downgrades the role of the N61 in providing regional connectivity between the NPF (National Planning Framework) regional centres of Athlone and Sligo”.

He pointed out that this national roads’ plan indicated the upgrading of the N55 and N4 as the regional connection linking Sligo and Athlone, with the connectivity between Athlone and Sligo running to the north-east heading to Edgesworthstown and moving up along the N4 into Sligo.

“The N55 and N4 corridors are the main corridors for future investment to achieve the average interurban speeds of 90km/an hour,” he said.

However, Mr Mulryan did make it clear that it had been the long-standing objective of numerous Roscommon County Development plans to upgrade the N61 to national primary status.

“The N61 is of strategic importance to County Roscommon and the wider region, and its improvement has and continues to be strongly supported in various local, regional, and national planning policy.

“The objective to upgrade the N61 to national primary status should be prioritised so that the N61 attracts the appropriate level of investment required in the long term in order to fulfil its strategic role,” he said.

In a discussion that followed, Council Cathaoirleach Cllr John Keogh said that when he got elected, he proposed that the N61 be upgraded from a national secondary status to a national primary route status. “But I don’t recall a response in that respect,” he said.

Receiving support from fellow councillors, Cllr Keogh proposed that a letter would go to the minister for transport and the TII and to any of the other agencies involved calling for the upgrading of the entirety of the N61 from a national secondary status to a national primary status “so that we can get the investment that is required to carry out the necessary improvements.” “There is no point calling for things that have no realistic prospect of being delivered. If we are to achieve what we are looking for, we have to focus on what we want to achieve and that is the first step that has to be taken, to get the upgrading of the road from national secondary to national primary.

“While there are indications for a new roadway and I don’t necessarily agree with that, the reality is that while the N61 has a national secondary status, there’s no prospect of us ever getting a new road in my view so that has to be a primary focus and I’m pleased it was noted in the presentation,” said the Fianna Fáil councillor.

Cllr Keogh said he was alarmed by the “TII’s policies and processes and the difficulties that they present for us” in relation to the N61, which he said was a critical artery that runs right through County Roscommon. “The county’s development is critical on that artery, and political pressure needs to be applied to ensure he gets the attention that it deserves, and the people of Roscommon are treated with the respect that they deserve,” he said.

Cllr Laurence Fallon said, “many of us wondered” why the N61 wasn’t part of the 2040 plan when it came out a number of years ago but perhaps it “was becoming a bit clearer now”.

“I think it is intolerable to think that the design now is that if you are in Roscommon or Athlone and you want to go to Sligo, that you actually go to Edgesworthstown. That makes absolutely no sense to me, but it will have a tremendous effect on what is going to happen to the N61 in the near future,” he said.

Cllr Fallon said there was no point in talking about a new road to Roscommon, if after Roscommon, the road was downgraded. “That is the most alarming thing I have seen here. We are sucking the traffic and the population and the drivers out of County Roscommon and putting them in the direction of Longford at Athlone. It will be detrimental to the economy because people who go through the county, they tend to stop plus the fact it is a much longer route I have no doubt. I think that needs to be changed and changed rapidly because the N61 needs to be upgraded in status rather than downgraded.

“There’s no point saying we’ve kept a bit of it. We either keep it all or we keep nothing because if a road changes status half way up, you’ll avoid and go somewhere else so that is something that needs to be looked at, and looked at very urgently because it will impact on the entire funding that comes in the next twenty years for the N61. If you are in the process of downgrading something, you are not going to fund it and that is something we need to very clear on,” he said, Cllr Valerie Byrne said taking the main route to Sligo out of County Roscommon was “absolutely scandalous”. “We’re doing our best to get it (N61) up to a national primary. I don’t know who came up with that plan. We rely on cars and people coming through and stopping and spending time in Roscommon and leaving a few pounds behind them.

“We need to fight this tooth and nail, they are going to upgrade the N55, why aren’t they upgrading our road? They are going to spend the money over there, it just beats me, who is making the decisions where Roscommon always seems to be left out,” said Cllr Byrne.

Raising concerns about the road’s downgrading, Cllr Tony Ward said: “We’re going to tell people: don’t go through Athlone, don’t go through Roscommon, go to Sligo and that’s your best chance.” Cllr Emer Kelly and Cllr Paschal Fitzmaurice said also they supported the proposal for an upgrade.

Cllr John Naughten said he supported the cathaoirleach’s proposal to upgrade it to a national primary route. He asked the executive what the criteria was around that and how such an upgrade could be achieved. “There have been calls for a long time to upgrade it to a national primary route and to date it seems to have fallen on deaf ears,” he said.

Acting Director of services Greg O’Donnell said the proposal would take the form of a request from the council’s road design office to TII initially, and then the TII would consult with the department of transport and the department “would make the ultimate call on it”.

“I would see the recommendation to seek status to national primary would kickstart that process. We’re crafting a proposal to TII as we speak to make that proposal to them and that then would go on to the department of transport.

“We don’t know what the outcome of that process will be, but we certainly appreciate your support on it,” he said.

Welcoming the development, Cllr Naughten proposed that that process commenced immediately in light of the report and the seriousness of the road.

Council CEO Shane Tiernan said the local authority “would keep fighting on for this road to get the status it deserves for Roscommon and hopefully with political pressure, we will get the funding that is needed to carry out the work”.

He thanked councillors for their comprehensive comments and acknowledged the work of the NRO office in Roscommon and the team who worked intensively with the consultants on the strategic review report, he said.

“We are fortunate to have a regional roads office in Roscommon because that does give us the impetus in pushing forward this pivotal road/artery through Roscommon for upgrades and improvements. I have been working with Martin and Greg, and we will push on and seek funding for next year. The upgrade has become a point of focus for us.

“Your letter (to the minister) will be helpful, but we will generating substantive input into that in the context of the reasoning and justification for it (the N61 upgrade),” said Mr Tiernan.