"No plans" to resurface Athlone relief road in 2025

A request by the elected members of Athlone Moate Municipal District to have road resurfacing works carried out on the Athlone Relief Road using low-noise materials has been refused by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).

The response, which issued to councillors three and a half months after they had written to TII last October, was described at the February meeting of the municipal district this week as being “a mealy-mouthed, benign response” by Cllr Aengus O'Rourke.

“They thank us for our correspondence on October 18 last and they reply on January 31. It only took them three and a half months to reply, so at this rate we will never get the road resurfaced,” said an irate Cllr O'Rourke.

The Fianna Fail councillor also pointed out that the letter had been signed by “an administrator” and not by the manager of TII, which prompted him to query who exactly is receiving the correspondence which issues from municipal district meetings.

“I am now very concerned about every single letter we send from this Chamber” said the councillor, who suggested that all correspondence being issued on foot of motions from councillors be circulated to members for approval.

In their correspondence to the meeting, TII said they had “no plans” to resurface the Athlone Relief Road in 2025, with the response being described as being “in very bad taste” by Cllr Paul Hogan. “Here we have a road which is in very bad need of resurfacing to reduce noise levels, and I find it in very bad taste that TII issues a four line letter to us three and a half months later with absolutely no detail whatsoever,” he said.

Cllr Hogan said correspondence such as that which went to TII should go from “manager to manager” and not to administrators.

“The fear I have is that the people who are supposed to be making the decisions about this road might not even know about the road at all,” he added.

Athlone Mayor Cllr Frankie Keena requested that the meeting send another letter to the TII asking them to attend a meeting of the municipal district or receive a deputation from the council as a matter of urgency.

This was agreed by the meeting with Cllr Aengus O'Rourke saying that “a strong case needs to be made” by the Westmeath local authority for funding.

“We are not playing the game and we need to catch up quickly, and instead of sending a one-page letter we need to send a ten-page letter, if necessary, to state our case” said Cllr O'Rourke.