Members of the Tipperary – Cahir – Cashel Municipal District will tomorrow vote on controversial works planned for Tipp town centre.
The two year project proposed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland and Tipperary County Council has drawn significant opposition from local community and business groups.
The resurfacing planned would take in the N24 and N74 through the heart of the west Tipp town – many locals say a bypass of the town is more urgent.
Tipperary Town Chamber of Commerce is one of the groups opposed to the plan – Chairman Joe Hayes says the works would effectively shut down the town centre just as we are coming out of Covid.
“We have seen what happened on the Limerick Road in 2019 and what the businesses in town suffered. That project was geared to take 6 months – it went on for nearly 13 months.”
“You can gloss it up all you like – it’s going to put people off coming into town.”
“The very mention of roadworks to people now will put them off coming into town. I know this myself – I have a business in town and people have told me if this work goes ahead we won’t be coming into town. We saw enough of it with the Limerick Road debacle.”
However Director of Services for Roads with Tipperary County Council Marcus O’Connor says the works planned are very necessary for Tipp town.
He says the potential 5 million Euro investment from Transport Infrastructure Ireland would transform the town.
While admitting there will be some level of disruption Marcus O’Connor says the works would be carried out on a phased basis.
“The section on the Cashel Road will be done first – in other words from the Bansha Road Roundabout out will be done first. There won’t be any work done on Main Street while that’s going on and that is effectively half the job. And then the other parts will be done in stages and there will be access maintained at all times to the businesses.”
“There is going to be disruption but in the end of the day once the job is done it will improve the town of Tipperary enormously.”
