Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 June 2020
875. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if progress has been made in respect of the Meath County Council draft appraisal for the proposed Julianstown bypass; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8443/20]
View answerThe improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of the relevant local authority in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from the Council's own resources supplemented by State road grants.
As previously indicated the extent of the cutbacks in grant funding during the post 2008 recession meant that grant funding for road improvement schemes had to be curtailed because expenditure on maintenance/renewal was falling well short of what was required to adequately maintain the regional and local road network.
The National Development Plan (NDP) does provide for the gradual build up in funding for the road network but funding is not yet at the level needed for the adequate maintenance and renewal of regional and local roads. For this reason the primary focus for capital investment at present is the maintenance and renewal of the network and implementation of the 12 regional and local road projects identified for development, subject to necessary approvals, in the NDP.
Some limited provision is being made in the capital budget for the appraisal of a pipeline of upgrade projects. This is intended to cover the appraisal of projects for future development, if possible.
The Department has formally made observations on the draft Preliminary Appraisal Report that was submitted by Meath County Council and is continuing to liaise with the Council in relation to the further analysis required to underpin the assessment and costing of various options for managing traffic in the Julianstown area.
As also explained previously the project assessment process can be expected to take time and all proposed projects must now comply with the revised Public Spending Code published in December 2019. In that regard, DTTAS understand that the Council intends to carry out an origin-destination information gathering exercise to obtain a clear indication of the traffic movements and patterns in and around Julianstown. The Council has confirmed that the data collected from this will inform the project appraisal process and a wider transport study for the Drogheda and East Meath area that Meath County Council proposes to carry out in conjunction with Louth County Council as part of a future Joint Urban Plan. It is noted that this exercise is likely to be delayed as the collection of traffic data at this time is not advisable due to the ongoing impacts of the public health measures that are in place to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Meath County Council has further confirmed that it is committed to implementing traffic management measures in the vicinity of Julianstown in the shorter term.
