Council requests upgrade of status of 40km of Inishowen roads

Donegal County Council has requested that Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) upgrades more than 40km of road in Inishowen to national primary status.
The council made the request to reclassify the R238 from Bridgend to Buncrana and from Muff to Greencastle.
The request to upgrade the two stretches of the R238 was made to TII by a delegation of councillors and council officials in December.
The only stretch of the national primary road in Inishowen is the N13 from the border at Bridgend to Manorcunningham.
Prior to the meeting, councillors were told at December’s plenary council meeting that no formal request had been submitted to TII or the Department of Transport seeking reclassification of the roads, despite the upgrading having been requested by councillors in recent years.
The council is also seeking €350,000 for the development of the N13 Bridgend to the county boundary project. A third public consultation on the project is expected to be held in the first quarter of 2023 when the merging preferred route option will be revealed.
The local authority has also requested maintenance funding for the N13 from the border at Bridgend to Manorcunningham.
The spending is part of a total of €27m that the council is seeking from TII for projects across the county. The allocation the council will receive is expected to be announced in late January.

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Cathaoirleach of the Inishowen municipal district, Cllr Paul Canning - who was part of the delegation - said the investment in Greencastle harbour, the funding for a tourist attraction at Dunree and funding for town centre regeneration in Buncrana and Carndonagh, means the main roads around the peninsula need to upgraded.
He said the council is putting pressure on the TII “to step up to the plate” to ensure that road investment matches other infrastructural investment in Inishowen.
The Fianna Fáil councillor said that in planning policies, the roads are already being treated as national primary routes.

“The Bridgend to Buncrana road is actually being treated as a national road regarding policies on intensification and new entrances, and the same applies to the Muff to Greencastle road. So there is no point in us not requesting that those roads be upgraded to national primary status.”
He said the €20m investment being made in Greencastle harbour means the road network to the port “needs to be to the same level as the actual port upgrade”.
“If we are going to be seriously looking at Greencastle as a working port, we need to have the road recognised the same.”