Posted online: Mar 28th, 2007

Drivers will be happy to hear that the road between Carrick and Meenaneary is to be permanently resurfaced in the next two weeks.

They had been concerned about the condition of the road, saying it was affecting their vehicles.

School bus driver Michael Curran thought the situation was a shame:

“It’s a pity that the council doesn’t do anything to fill those potholes. Four buses use that road on a daily basis, but because of the number of potholes, you have to crawl to try and avoid them.”

Michael said that he had to reduce his speed as low as 15kmh.

According to Cllr Brendan Byrne, the severe weather had stopped work on the road.

“We have tried everything in our power to continue the upgrading of this stretch of the road, but the weather has been persistently bad and you can’t tarmac a road in bad weather,” he said.

He also added that this is a three-year development and the total coast was E2million. The aim of the project is to upgrade a class one county road to a regional road.

The road situation has since progressed and county council executive engineer William Freney went to Carrick last Thursday to meet Cllr Byrne and inspect the road.

According to a council report, the Donegal Area Roads office received Government funding late in 2006 to widen a section of the L-1125-2 from Meenaneary Fish Factory towards Carrick village.

It was to widen a 1km section and provide a temporary surface over the winter period with a final overlay to be laid in early 2007, when the roadworks programme and weather permitted.

In fact the project widened 1.6km of road and carried out drainage, accommodation works and fencing – but due to the late timeframe final surfacing could not be laid.

The engineer added that to date in 2007 it has been too early to consider carrying out these permanent works, but the council is now in a position to do that over the next month