The councillors from the old Ballinrobe electoral area welcomed the news that the tender process will be concluded shortly for the new Bowers Walk bridge project in the town. The old electoral area had directed money from the economic and social fund towards the project.
Patsy Bourke, senior engineer for the council, told the monthly meeting of the Claremorris Electoral Area committee that eight tenders were received and were opened by the county secretary in the presence of a number of councillors. The tenders ranged in price from €99,300 to €357,500 and the recommendation was to go with the lowest tender at the moment subject to further inspection of the tender. Mr Bourke also told the members that it was expected that it would take 16 weeks from the awarding of the tender to the completion of the project.
“I welcome the tender report,” Fianna Fáil Councillor Damien Ryan told the meeting. “We have been waiting a long time for this since we first allocated the money in the old area and I hope there will be sufficient money left over from the tender process to complete other parts of the redevelopment of the area.”
Fine Gael Cllr Patsy O’Brien also welcomed the news that the scheme was progressing now but urged that it gets completed as soon as possible. “This is good news and we really have to see this happen as soon as possible, because we don’t want to see another tourist season pass by without having this infrastructure in place,” he warned.
