Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Lombard for raising the issue of the phase 2 work on the Bandon southern relief road. I am representing the Minister for Transport who has responsibility for overall policy and securing Exchequer funding for the national roads programme.

Under the Roads Acts, and in line with the national development plan, NDP, the planning, design and construction of individual national roads is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TIl, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. TIl ultimately delivers the national roads programme in line with Project Ireland 2040, the national planning framework, NPF, and the NDP.

In that context, TII provides the Department of Transport with regular updates on its delivery of the national roads programme.The following information, from Transport Infrastructure Ireland, is the most up-to-date information available to me on the Bandon relief road. The N71 relief road around Bandon ties back into the existing road network via a steep downhill gradient and drivers also need to negotiate a number of roundabouts and priority junctions within the built-up area of Bandon, of which I am sure the Senator is acutely aware. I understand when he says the town is smothered. It is chock-a-block, which costs a lot of time and causes delays. It does not help business trading in a town to have so many trucks on the main street. Road safety is also a key issue when so many large vehicles are passing through a busy town.

The N71 experiences heavy traffic, with annual daily traffic of between 9,000 and 14,000 vehicles. The proposed relief road extension would involve bridging over the R603 to remove the existing steep gradient and construction of approximately 2.5 km of new single-lane carriageway, tying back to the existing N71 just to the west of the town. A feasibility study was completed by Cork County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland is reviewing the study. The project assessment plan was approved by the Department in 2020 and work on early planning and design will continue in 2021, with a preferred route for the bypass extension yet to be identified.

As this project is in the early stages of planning, it is not possible to provide an accurate estimate of the total costs at this stage. The Senator referred to an earlier figure, but that was a preliminary estimate at that stage. The estimated cost cannot be finalised until the project reaches the business case stage of the process. However, TII allocated €100,000 to Cork County Council to progress the planning and design in this calendar year. TII has informed the Department the approximate cost of progressing phase 2 would be an additional €200,000. This would fund works such as a ground investigation, water monitoring and some archaeological works.

Pending future funding availability, Cork County Council hopes to progress the scheme to planning permission stage in the coming years. The timescale will be at least three years because water monitoring, archaeological works and identifying a preferred route take time. The timeframe for delivery of any major or minor roads project that requires statutory approval, whether for an environmental impact assessment, a compulsory purchase order, CPO, or both, is normally between eight and 13 years. That can mean from beginning to end. Normally, the assessment takes 80% of the delivery time, whereas construction normally accounts for only 20% of the entire time of a project.

All projects, including those listed in the national development plan or the revised national plan, require statutory approval and compliance with the public spending code.