Further road closure misery for motorists in East Meath

ANN CASEY

As motorists in the Slane and Donore area face another road closure just months after the reopening of the Obelisk Bridge, Cllr Wayne Harding has expressed frustration that this will not be the last closure of that road.

The road from Rathmullen to Oldbridge is due to close from 10am on Monday 30th September until Friday 22nd November, to facilitate the repair of the Boyne Boardwalk between Drogheda and Oldbridge.

Cllr Harding has appealed to Meath County Council to suspend the proposed closure at Oldbridge until he has assurances that the proposed footpath from Rathmullen to the boardwalk will be delivered at the same time.

“There is real anger over this, as the road was subject to a road closure for a year to repair the Obelisk bridge and these works could have been carried out then. I asked at the time for the footpath and these repairs to be carried out then, but this didn't happen as there was absolutely no joined up thinking.

“Now my fear is there will be three separate closures for three separate projects. This simply can't happen.”

Cllr Harding said planning permission came through for the footpath from Rathmullen to the boardwalk days after the road reopened, after the year long works to the obelisk bridge.

“So this project, a very important one, is now going through the tender process.

“The closure for the boardwalk works, simply can't go ahead without the footpath being delivered as part of the closure. The footpath will link all of the estates on the Rathmullen road to the boardwalk and create a looped walk around the town of Drogheda. All the works are welcome. But we simply cannot have two more separate closures.”

A spokesperson for Meath Co Council said the timelines didn’t align and it wasn’t possible to complete the current work while the Obelisk Bridge work was going on.

She said the contract is purely in relation to boardwalk maintenance. “The footpath works are a community section scheme which is on a different timeline.

“The works for the footpath has not been tendered. Having said that we are engaging with the community section to explore if they can use the closure for any aspect of their works for instance site clearance. It is probably also worth pointing out that the duration of the road closure could be longer if both schemes were being carried out at the same time.”