Trim councillor rages about old N4 road being in ‘rag order’

Sections of the old N4 in County Meath are in "rag order" particularly between Leinster Bridge and Kinnegad due to trucks coming off the motorway to avoid tolls, according to Cllr Padraig Coffey who said the road was in need of a serious upgrade.

Cllr Coffey made the comments during a discussion on the roadworks programme for the year ahead at the February meeting of Trim Municipal District Council and asked the council to look at the road. He said between Leinster Bridge and Clonard since the bad weather, there are potholes in the road surface and blamed the high volume of heavy good vehicles using the route.

"We have a toll outside Enfield. It is €8.50 for a truck one way. They are coming off at Kilcock, going through the village of Enfield, through Clonard. Its just mayhem. Is there anything that can be done to maintain this road, it is absolutely worn out," he said. He recalled there had been a fatal accident where a car hit a pothole and was put in the path of a truck around 25 years ago.

"It's lacking over the years. It's getting what I would say is intermittenent maintenance but it needs a serious upgrade because of the volume of heavy goods vehicles using the road, more so than cars."

He was told that the Council look at it again if they get additional funding.

During the discussion, the need for more funding to be committed to the Community Involvement Scheme was raised. This is a scheme for smaller roads and cul de sacs where residents commit to providing 10 per cent of the cost themselves. While funding has increased for this year, councillors told how there is a still a long list of applications for the scheme.

Cllr Joe Fox said the list was fairly low for the Local Involvement Scheme, which is funded by the Department of Rural Affairs, but they had a "serious problem" with the CIS. "Funding was cut over the last few years and our list is getting longer and longer. There is a CIS on the list seven years."

He said it was not the fault of the council and said they needed to get more national funding. "It makes perfect sense to get these roads done once, they are done they are done for 30 years.

"We are going to have to lobby our TDs and Oireachtas members to get more funding for CIS. It's vital. It's getting embarrassing now. You could have a LIS with maybe one house getting done, yet the road beside it, a CIS with maybe 10 houses not getting done, and you are trying to explain this to people. It has to be a priority that we get more funding for community involvement scheme."

Meanwhile, councillors also heard that the council is now using environmentally friendly warm mix on 50 per cent of its roads scheme which uses less heat and therefore less carbon. The Dept of Transport requires that at least 25 per cent of schemes used the warm mix in 2025, rising to 50 per cent in 2026 with Meath County Council already achieving this target of 50 per cent.

A section of the R147 completed last year was described as the "most sustainable in the country" with a control section also done for comparison purposes. While initial tests were carried out, councillors were told full results are not available yet.