Regional and local road damaged by storms will be repaired thanks to funding announced today.
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross TD said local authorities will receive an extra 15 million euro under a new ‘Special Maintenance Grant’.
Waterford Council will receive €500,00.
"In deciding on the allocations I was very conscious of the fact that in certain areas of the country the fabric of the regional and local road network has suffered significant damage as a result of severe weather events and that in some cases local authorities have been faced with damage caused by repeated severe weather incidents," Minister Ross said.
Extreme weather events over the last year, such as Storm Eleanor, Storm Emma, flooding incidents and the summer drought have had a major impact on the regional and local road network.
These events combined with the extended period of reduced funding for road maintenance following the economic downturn have left the road network much more vulnerable to damage.
Director of Services with Waterford Council Fergus Galvin says the funds are very welcome:
"It's money that will be put towards repairing roads damaged in the severe weather events earlier this year - the 500 thousand will help to go towards the long-term remediation of those roads."
Fergus says the money announced today comes on top of a further 600 thousand received recently to fund the clean up works undertaken in the immediate aftermath of the storm events.
Fergus says the work to repair the storm damage is still ongoing, for example the Ballytruckle resurfacing works taking place in the city at the moment.
The Council hopes to complete all these works in the next month, should the weather remain favourable.
