The Municipal Districts around the county are facing a 'Sophie's Choice' type dilemma in relation to which roads projects to undertake this year, due to the massive increase in costs of fuel and materials.
At the June meeting of the Mayo County Council's Roads Strategic Policy Committee - top council officials outlined the issues that the districts around the county are facing on roads projects.
Head of Roads for Mayo County Council, Mr Paul Dolan, told the meeting that: "In terms of the 2022 roadworks scheme, it is ongoing at a pace in the districts; just to note, I suppose, we are all aware of the increased costs, the increased price of fuel which has knock-on effects in terms of the price of bitumen; while we have the same pot of money, there will be less work done - that is the reality.
"Whether that will be that the municipal districts are going to reduce the length of schemes carried out or whether they are going to actually maybe drop some of the roads and then do them in 2023 program - that is a matter for each municipal district.
“But the reality is there are significant increases in costs - particularly in bitumen. The price of bitumen from 2021 to 2022 is about 35 per cent higher, that is what we are dealing with basically.”
Independent councillor Seamus Weir told the meeting that he was concerned about what roads were going to be dropped or shortened because of increased costs and asked the council to write to the department to see could additional funding be sought for the roads. He pointed out that while costs have gone up, that also means that the tax take to revenue is also increasing.
Mr Hyland responded, saying that: "It is not just bitumen, it is fuel for our plant, all our machines running on diesel. There is a fixed budget for every road in the budget in the roadworks scheme. If there is a €100k of a budget, bitumen probably, in terms of surface dressing, is 50 per cent of the cost of the surface dressing; every road is affected. The districts have a decision to make - do they want to shorten the road they are delivering or do they want to cut some schemes off the programme and do the length in full on other roads? That is an issue that each district is addressing themselves."
Director of Services for Mayo County Council, Tom Gilligan, added: "We have already had Brexit, Covid and the new kid on the block is the war in Ukraine which is putting incredible pressure on prices, inflation, costs of living etc.
"In relation to the roads programme, it's a bit like 'Sophie’s Choice', it's a very difficult decision. You procure for a roads programme and mobilise crews, appoint contractors and you are not getting great value for money. You have to pick and choose and it is a bit like picking your favourite child to some degree, what road do you commence and what do you stop; it is a very difficult decision but I do commend the SPC asking to write to the department for more money.
"It would be great if we cold get extra funding - if you don’t continue with programs like surface dressing and roads maintained, it impacts the quality of the roads and you end up with it costing more to come back and do later. We probably won’t know the full scale of the choice of those decisions until later in the year."
