Funding for Roosky bridge works must be ‘reinstated’ - meeting hears

Funding allocated for the refurbishment of Roosky bridge back in 2009 must be ‘reinstated’, Independent councillor Tom Crosby urged at the March meeting of Roscommon County Council.

In a motion tabled at the meeting, Cllr Crosby proposed that the council request the Ministers for Finance, Environment and An Taoiseach to reinstate the necessary funding for the full refurbishment of the bridge, which spans the River Shannon and connects the three counties of Roscommon, Leitrim and Longford.

The Tarmonbarry councillor claimed at the council meeting that the project had been fully funded to the tune of €1.4m but this was shelved just weeks before the 2009 election. He said the planned works, including widening the bridge and installing a footpath, were aimed at allowing traffic “to meet properly on the bridge”.

In relation to that bridge project, he outlined at the meeting that the local authority had incurred an expenditure of €123,513, which he said in today’s money “would be €250,00 at least”. He said this particular money was spent on design work, including obtaining planning approval, preparing contract documents, arranging traffic management and scheduling the commencement of works for July 2009.

He described the bridge as “one of the worst pieces of infrastructure in the county – a bridge so narrow that it cannot take two large vehicles and has no footpath”.

“I am proposing that the council write to the Minister for Finance, to the Taoiseach to get this money reinstated in Roosky for one of the worst infrastructural problems in our country. A total of €1.4m was allocated and that money needs to come back in - in today’s value. It’s probably at least twice that amount now,” he said.

Cllr Crosby also said he was also opposed to current plans to progress a one-way scheme on the bridge and that the trial period for this system “had caused absolute pandemonium”. He pointed to a public meeting attended by 150 people who were opposed to this plan.

Referring to the bridge renovation project in 2009, Independent councillor Valerie Byrne agreed with Cllr Crosby that the money was allocated “and then was pulled”. “Everybody knows how tight the bridge is. You have mothers with buggies and everything else and no sidewalk,” she said.

Cllr Byrne said there was a previous proposal for a walking bridge parallel to and attached to the existing bridge, similar to what was in place in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Fianna Fáil councillor Sean Moylan said he was aware, as a truck driver, that Roosky bridge was an “incredibly tight one to take”.

“It’s coming out on to a T-junction – it is a rare kind of situation,” he said and supported Cllr Byrne’s comments on the cantilever bridge proposal.

Cllr Moylan said he was not disputing what Cllr Crosby said about the project being shelved in 2009 but said that “an awful lot of money was pulled from a lot of projects because a lot of things in 2009 went pear-shaped”.

“I do think that current plans being put in place for the current bridge are crazy,” he added.

Independent councillor Michéal Frain said what was proposed back in 2009 needed to be carried out and not the current proposals while Fine Gael councillor Liam Callaghan said the access for motorists and pedestrians was hugely important.

Fianna Fáil councillor John Keogh said there were very different times in 2009 and he didn’t know the reason why the project did not happen back then. “But now that we are in better times, hopefully this is a project that could be put back on the jobs’ programme to get it done,” he said.

Cllr Crosby’s motion was also supported by councillors Tony Ward and Nigel Dineen.