Reopening storm damaged road a bridge too far for Cork County Council

Reopening a damaged bridge connecting two townlands in a rural area near Clonakilty would not be economic because it would cost the entire annual roads budget to do so, a recent meeting of Cork County Council’s Western Municipal District was told.

The issue was raised in a motion proposed by Independent Ireland councillor Daniel Sexton which asked: “That Cork County Council pursues options to repair and reopen the closed bridge connecting the townlands of Cather Conway and Letter in Clonakilty, which links roads L-8597 and L-4034.”

Mr Sexton said that the bridge had been closed for 12 years following storm damage in 2009 and had cut off local communities from each other with one local farmer having to make long detours to access his land and school children having to make much longer journeys to get to school.

He said: “I know it’s not the M50 but transport minister Darragh O’Brien said he would have a look at it so now might be a good time. It’s a shame it’s been closed so long and if we have other bridges that collapse in West Cork are we saying we will just forget about them?”

Joe Carroll, Fianna Fáil councillor, said the issue had been raised six or seven times before and if Mr Sexton was successful in progressing the issue “they will put a monument up to him in Lyre.” Mr Carroll said the bridge should be looked at again and he queried why it should cost any more than a farmer’s cattle underpass. Senior engineer John Ahern said the bridge was severely damaged during the flooding event of 2009. He said a subsequent report into the damage concluded that the cost of repair of the bridge was substantial and no direct source of funding exists for the repair of the bridge on a “stand-alone basis”. He added: “The cost of repair would consume the bulk of the funding that the local authority receives for the entire county on an annual basis. It was previously concluded and advised that this bridge does not rank on a high enough priority to justify the repair cost involved.”

• This article is funded by the Local Government Reporting Scheme.