The shocking state of our roads.

junkyard

Has anyone else noticed the shocking state of the roads around county Cork? Even the main ones and duel carriageways have huge pot holes all over the place that are getting bigger by the day. Considering we have to pay crazy road tax here it has to be unacceptable.

Saab Ed

Do you know there was an argument on here a couple of weeks ago as to why people outside Dublin wont buys cars with a country reg on them. Most Dubs answered its because country roads are perceived to be in sh!te so the car tends to be too. Most country folk argued the opposite and that Dubs are just nuts. It'll be interesting to see some peoples responses to this. :)

Cuddlesworth

junkyard wrote: »

Considering we have to pay crazy tax here it has to be unacceptable.

Fixed that for you.

galwaytt

er, I thought you'd moved to France ?...no ?

Berty

*Sigh

Motor tax does not pay for the Roads.

If you have an issue with a certain road and a certain point on the road then bring it up with Cork County Council.

Its the only way to go.

Martron

there are more newer roads with holes in them. cant mention it though as i may get in trouble.

junkyard

galwaytt wrote: »

er, I thought you'd moved to France ?...no ?

I have but unfortunately I still houses here that I can't sell and a few loose ends that I can't tie up here now because nobody has any money and I still have to use these terrible roads.:(

woody33

I won't mention the Waterford - Tramore road. Honest.

Martron

there is a brand new road that is currently being built that should be lasting longer but its not

its a motorway in dublin but does not go to the north

Yakult

Has anyone driven from Listowel To Tralee??
Just past the Kerry Co-op factory is the difinition of potholes. Its honestly like the patch of road was bombed. People go onto the other side of the road to avoid them. Also its been there for months and they still havent even attempted to fix it. Disgrace imo.

ART6

It never ceases to amaze me why everyone thinks they have a God given right to have roads they can actually drive on. It's basically a question of market forces and simple economics. If you own a car you will pay an annual vehicle tax, but every time you renew the car you will pay VRT and VAT on that. It is a "nice little earner". So. A nice big pothole here and there gets you closer to having to pay the VRT and VAT, and it gets older vehicles off the road in a way that the NCT never did. Ergo--Potholes earn income for the exchequer. Good roads do not. Simple economics:D

richiepoorman

Talking about the state of our roads, I was in Wexford town recently and my god, the road along the quays is in a terrible state, it is probably the worst road through a town centre in the whole of ireland.

mick.fr

You don't get it, Irish roads are monuments that are under protection of the UNESCO.

Kidding, but dawn, that will be cool if it was the case, at least they would be restored

Bobo78

Have any of ye guys been in Gort and seen the state of road when you r entering the Gort from south??

Zonda999

Anyone driven through Buttevant in Co. Cork lately? Absolutely appalling road surface

Mr Benevolent

ART6 wrote: »

It never ceases to amaze me why everyone thinks they have a God given right to have roads they can actually drive on. It's basically a question of market forces and simple economics. If you own a car you will pay an annual vehicle tax, but every time you renew the car you will pay VRT and VAT on that. It is a "nice little earner". So. A nice big pothole here and there gets you closer to having to pay the VRT and VAT, and it gets older vehicles off the road in a way that the NCT never did. Ergo--Potholes earn income for the exchequer. Good roads do not. Simple economics:D

Yikes. An interesting point :eek: Bad roads mean fewer high speed accidents too.

kuro_man

ART6 wrote: »

It never ceases to amaze me why everyone thinks they have a God given right to have roads they can actually drive on. It's basically a question of market forces and simple economics. If you own a car you will pay an annual vehicle tax, but every time you renew the car you will pay VRT and VAT on that. It is a "nice little earner". So. A nice big pothole here and there gets you closer to having to pay the VRT and VAT, and it gets older vehicles off the road in a way that the NCT never did. Ergo--Potholes earn income for the exchequer. Good roads do not. Simple economics:D

Economic models does not work on a tax-funded service. We pay tax, we should get something in return. I think the OP is perfectly entitled to complain, here and to the County Council. Also, lobby the minister (J. Gormley) to transfer local roads (and finance) to the NRA.

Dublin has some of the worst roads in the county, mostly caused by utilities not repairing the surface properly after digging it up.

EPM

woody33 wrote: »

I won't mention the Waterford - Tramore road. Honest.

It's funny, the back road is a way better road than the main one. What the hell are they playing at with the main one? Apparently they pay €50k a year for the upkeep of the cones:eek:

Zonda999 wrote: »

Any driven through Buttevant in Co. Cork lately? Absolutely appalling road surface

Now thats a brutal road. I take it at a snails pace so I dont buckle a wheel. Carrigtwohill is the same and the Rochestown road is bordering on ridiculous for the amount of traffic it has on it

Saab Ed

There's no mention of any bad roads in Dublin yet. Maybe it is true about country cars being in a worse state than Dublin ones. ( with reference to an earlier smart arse comment by me ) Dont know if i'd buy a car without a Dublin reg after reading all these bad remarks about the roads in the country. :D:D

EPM

Along the Clontarf road so now that you mention Dublin:D

All you get is "thud thud" "thud thud" over the gaps in the concrete road:pac:

EDIT - Just noticed post 1666 and I'm giving out about Dublin. Surely a sign

Saab Ed

EPM wrote: »

Along the Clontarf road so now that you mention Dublin:D

All you get is "thud thud" "thud thud" over the gaps in the concrete road:pac:

EDIT - Just noticed post 1666 and I'm giving out about Dublin. Surely a sign

Ahhhh that doesnt count

Martron

Saab Ed wrote: »

There's no mention of any bad roads in Dublin yet. Maybe it is true about country cars being in a worse state than Dublin ones. ( with reference to an earlier smart arse comment by me ) Dont know if i'd buy a car without a Dublin reg after reading all these bad remarks about the roads in the country. :D:D

i entioned the newest mot expensive road!!!

Gregor Samsa

Bobo78 wrote: »

Have any of ye guys been in Gort and seen the state of road when you r entering the Gort from south??

I'm assuming that they're waiting until the bypass is open to fix that abomination. Not that that's a proper excuse, but I need to belive it in order to keep my last shred of faith in humanity.

Twice in the past few years I've had to drive people back from hospital in Galway after abdominal surgery. On both occasions, they were crying in agony, no matter how slowly I went, as we bounced over the craters. I did my best to avoid them, but they're everywhere, on both sides of the road.

Long Onion

Off to America - the roads there are paved with gold!

JHMEG

We allow people to build pretty much on any boreen they want, keeping very small roads with low populations open and needing maintenance. As a result we've more roads per capita than most countries. And we've a €20 billion hole in this year's budget. Oh, and it was in yesterday's paper that most local authorities are up to their necks in debt and can't clear it. Makes sense road maintenance will be first casualty of the fiscal situation.

Sustainable would be to exercise some planning control. In about 200 years we'd be able to close these small roads which would leave more money for maintenance of the more important ones.

Saab Ed

JHMEG wrote: »

We allow people to build pretty much on any boreen they want, keeping very small roads with low populations open and needing maintenance. As a result we've more roads per capita than most countries. We've a €20 billion hole in this year's budget.

Sustainable would be to exercise some planning control. In about 200 years we'd be able to close these small roads which would leave more money for maintenance of the more important ones.

+1

When we finally stop trying to run what is really only a small city like a country then we might get proper budgets for proper roads. FFS there's more people on the underground in London at peak hours than there are people in Ireland. When the Parish politics stop then we'll have good roads.

ardmacha

Imagine that, allowing people freedom to live where they want! They should take a leaf out of Caecescu's book and corral them into concentration camps cities to save money. They should then prohibit driving and require people to use public transport.

Saab Ed

ardmacha wrote: »

Imagine that, allowing people freedom to live where they want! They should take a leaf out of Caecescu's book and corral them into concentration camps villages to save money.

So long as they dont mind paying for it

JHMEG

Saab Ed wrote: »

So long as they dont mind paying for it

Well that's the nub of it really. We all pay the same tax.

Saab Ed

JHMEG wrote: »

Well that's the nub of it really. We all pay the same tax.

But nothing I do gets subsidised. When people start being realistic about how and where they can live and how much it really should cost to live in the arse end of nowhere like in the west then we can start sorting the problem. If you want to live up a hill with no natural industry or good reason to be there except you like it well fair enough but pay for it yourself and not at the expense of the rest of us. Why should worthwhile projects suffer because of a few. :cool:

OldmanMondeo

Try driving through Kinnegad. The raod was "relayed" after roadworks before Christmas. The new surface has sunk all over the place and any speed over 2kph is way to fast. Even the moon buggy wouldn't be able to last on it.

cashmni1

Saab Ed wrote: »

But nothing I do gets subsidised. When people start being realistic about how and where they can live and how much it really should cost to live in the arse end of nowhere like in the west then we can start sorting the problem. If you want to live up a hill with no natural industry or good reason to be there except you like it well fair enough but pay for it yourself and not at the expense of the rest of us. Why should worthwhile projects suffer because of a few. :cool:

Because that's not the way it works. We all don't live in a city (I do and you probally do, but not all of us do) and not everyone has a choice where they live.

Alun

ardmacha wrote: »

Imagine that, allowing people freedom to live where they want! They should take a leaf out of Caecescu's book and corral them into concentration camps cities to save money. They should then prohibit driving and require people to use public transport.

It doesn't have to be a choice between the two extremes of living in a large city (of which the island of Ireland realistically only has two) vs. living at the dead end of a grass covered boreen in the middle of nowhere though. There can be a balance between the two, but this appears to be one that Ireland finds it very difficult to find.

ardmacha

But nothing I do gets subsidised.

Are you sure? If so, you must be very unusual citizen, how smug you must feel. I hope you don't fall ill.

Saab Ed

ardmacha wrote: »

Are you sure? If so, you must be very unusual citizen, how smug you must feel. I hope you don't fall ill.

Ah you're purposely missing the point here for a reason only known to yourself. PRSI and health insurance pays for me when Im sick just like the rest of the country. But how far do you think that money would stretch if every town in Ireland wanted a hospital. Thats the point you see. We only have just over 4 million people but we expect roads for a country the size of England which has a population of some 51 million and a GDP of about 1.5 triilion pounds a year. We cant afford as nation to continue on living anywhere we want nor is it viable ( as has come home with the recent job losses in the west and south west ) to do so if only down to the lack of population and infrastructure. We couldnt before the boom but buried our heads in the sand and spent crazy money with IDA backed (read subsidised) schemes and the like but without backing them up with such simple things as roads....becasue we cant afford them

ardmacha

Ah you're purposely missing the point here for a reason only known to yourself. PRSI and health insurance pays for me when Im sick just like the rest of the country.

All of these schemes involve a pool of money with varying amounts being paid out dependent on people's individual situation. The point is that cyclists health might be better than motorists health as they are fitter, so cyclists are subsidising motorists, but I do not think it proper for the government to ban cars for this reason as a democratic society has to allow people some discretion in their lives.

The recent mismanagement of the Irish economy had as much to do with crooked planning on the fringes of the cities as to any money spent in the West. The dysfunctional lifestyle choices of people in Ballymun has required as much expenditure to address it as one of the inter-urban routes. The situation is not as simple as your prejudices suggest.

thirdmantackle

Worst thing is when roads into/out of towns are dug up and then the refilled road surface starts to sag a month or two later leaving a long trench with bumps in it running in and out of towns - contractors should be made resurface the whole road

have lost count the number of towns where i've encountered this

Saab Ed

ardmacha wrote: »

The recent mismanagement of the Irish economy had as much to do with crooked planning on the fringes of the cities as to any money spent in the West. The dysfunctional lifestyle choices of people in Ballymun has required as much expenditure to address it as one of the inter-urban routes. The situation is not as simple as your prejudices suggest.

I agree with you 100%. But whats the answer? Proper planning is to invest money where its viable. Im a lover of the west of Ireland and I dont live in a city myself so I too suffer because of the crap roads that we are debating here. But force feeding jobs to certain parts of a country and then half arsed infrastucture plans is not the way to go. In fairness if you live in an estate and the council hasnt taken it over ( as is the case with many estates at the moment because of the coruption you talk about ) then nobody pays for road repairs at all. Now why should a nation be held responsible for a few when we cant even manage to look after the masses. We need to start getting real about this. Roads will always be crap if you have to build and look after loads of them for the minority. There simply isnt enough of us and God knows if we have to pay more taxes would you prefer it spent on roads or more schools and hospitals.

GTE

The old N4 between Kilcock and Kinnegad is a great road, lovely surface.
Before the M4 was extended it had a 100 speed limit. Now since the motorway has opened, the road has been downgraded and the speed limit has been brought down to 80. The road apparently wont be a high priority for repair anymore as well.

This is all, I assume, to get people off the N4 and on the M4 paying tolls.
The weird thing is, the new stretch of the M4 was falling apart in places a while back, only a few months after opening it was being dug up. Its such a rough surface too, I feel like its shredding the tyres sometimes.

Anyway, thats a little rant about that stretch or roadway.
I also dont see the point in filling in potholes, anyone who does Junior Cert geography would know about the freeze thaw action. Resurfacing a section of road would be better, it would probably cost less in the long run too.