Road raising in Carrickobrien will not start "until 2024 at the earliest"

Any hopes that flooding issues on road sections in the Carrickobrien area of Athlone might be solved before next winter were dashed at the June meeting of the local municipal district, which heard that road raising works will not commence “until 2024 at the earliest.”

The issue was raised by Cllr Aengus O’Rourke, who pointed out that road raising on a section of road in Carrickobrien had been agreed “at the end of last year” and he wanted to know if the necessary works to addressing flooding issues would be complete “before winter 2023/24.”

The council has previously accepted that, although some roads had been raised in the area, there remained a need to raise a number of additional road sections.

However, the written response from the council to Cllr O’Rourke’s question said finance has been secured through the Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Works Grant (DOT) recently to “facilitate the appointment of a consultant to appraise the feasibility and design of the necessary works” with the consultant to be appointed later this year.

“It is not anticipated that road raising works will follow until 2024 at the earliest,” stated the response.