It will be a few months before people notice the real construction work getting underway on the new Westport to Turlough road project.
Outlining the plan of works on the national primary roads for the coming year at a meeting of the Roads Strategic Policy Committee this year, Paul Hyland from Mayo County Council, told the members that €40 million has been allocated this year, which will mainly be spent on construction, but also for site supervision and land acquisition.
He went on to say there is not a lot of activity going on at the moment, and the weather has not been ideal for significant work to be taking place. Hyland added that the contractors are gearing up for the construction of the compound for the project and that should be constructed early next week, while a lot of background work, including hedge clearance and site clearance, will be taking place over the next few weeks - but it would probably be another few months before people see significant works taking place along the route.
Fine Gael Cllr Cyril Burke questioned what kind of traffic management plan would be in place during the project - Mr Hyland told the meeting that monthly meetings take place between the contractors and the council, to which Gardaí are also invited, to go through the issues that are foreseen that will crop up each month during the project. He also added that he didn't think that Castlebar town would be hugely affected by the project as it passes a number of kilometers away from the town. The Breaffy area where the road will cross the existing N60 road to Claremorris, is where it will be most affected he said and there will be temporary traffic management plans put in place to deal with the issues.
Independent Cllr Johnno O'Malley asked had all landowners who are going to be affected by the project been paid yet - he was told by Hyland that in the region of 250 landowners were subject to Compulsory Purchase Orders as part of the plan and that about 20 had not settled yet. However Hyland went on to say that it would not slow down the project because once the CPO had been approved and the council issued notice to treat and to enter, the lands were in the possession of the contractor. He also added that a number of people were yet to be paid who have settled with the council and that was due to legal issues needing to be ironed out and that process can take a few months.
