Road in Laois village collapses again after repair works fail

Repair works are being sought again to repair a damaged road in Laois, despite works being carried out just over a year ago on the same stretch of road. 

Councillor Paddy Bracken raised the matter of the L-20954 at Summergrove House in Mountmellick at the January meeting of the Borris-in-Ossory / Mountmellick MD. 

The Fianna Fáil councillor told the council: "There's a history to this piece of road. That was already repaired a year and a half ago. It's now collapsed again."

Cllr Bracken said that the collapsed section of road has been fenced off for almost six months. 

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He questioned: "Was there no comeback with the previous job that was done on it? What was the issue there? Are we going to be into the same problem again?"

Senior Executive Engineer at Laois County Council, Rory O'Callaghan told Cllr Bracken that the Area Office has sought quotations for the repair of the collapsed embankment at Summergrove House. 

O'Callaghan said: "An ecological assessment will need to be carried out prior to the works being carried out as in-stream works will be needed. An application for funding is being prepared for submission to the OPW."

In regards to the previous works on the road, he said the contractor carried out the works that were specified but these were undermined by the latest flood. 

O'Callaghan said the new designs will be going a metre deeper below the river bed to ensure the same does not happen again.

These repairs are hoped to be completed this year, depending on budgets. 

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme