Kilcully Road ‘in disgraceful condition’ after Irish Water pipe repairs

Residents in the Kilcully area staged a protest on Monday, demanding immediate action to restore the surface and traffic calming measures at a busy local junction. They say has been left in “disgraceful” and “dangerous” condition following repairs to a leak by Irish Water.

Towards the end of August, a leaking pipe under the junction between Kilcully Road and Glenville Street was repaired by Irish Water.

Joan Sutton, of the Kilcully/Ballincrokig Residents Association, said that the road has been left in a state of disrepair following the works.

“At the moment there’s a big huge pothole there, it’s in a disgraceful condition, and we haven’t seen Irish Water since… and it’s worse it's getting,” she said.

Ms Sutton said that many residents have damaged their cars on the road surface, and the loss of traffic calming measures at the junction is creating dangerous driving conditions.

The local community recently campaigned to have traffic measures installed to improve safety at the junction, including a widening of the footpath and road markings, which were installed by Cork City Council at a cost of €50,000.

“We want our traffic calming measure replaced again, because it makes a huge difference to us trying to get out of the junction. The volume of traffic that’s on those roads is unreal, we just want it put back,” said Ms Sutton.

Local resident Tony Cullinane came upon an incident at the junction last Wednesday evening, where a young man had been thrown from his bicycle, and had to be taken away in an ambulance.

“The road is in such a state of disrepair that he must have hit a pothole. The road is a disgrace for the last two months,” he said.

Mr Cullinane said that the materials used to resurface the road, which is the main thoroughfare to St Catherine’s Cemetery, Carrignavar and Glenville, were “totally inadequate”.

“They put it back in an awful condition. It was never put back right… the surface is totally washed away. The materials they put back were totally inadequate for the job,” he said.

Local councillor, Ken O’Flynn said that the conditions Irish Water has left the road in are “extremely dangerous”, adding that Irish Water have not responded to requests to reinstate the road.

“The way they have left the road is unsafe and extremely dangerous, with it having one young man end up in hospital and many other neighbours having near misses while driving and damage caused to vehicles,” he said.

A spokesperson for Irish Water said that it is customary for temporary road reinstatement works to be undertaken for the type of road repair work at Kilcully, “to allow time for the backfill in the excavation to settle and reduce the likelihood of reinstatement sinking in the future”.

They said that permanent reinstatement works are scheduled for February, and that the island and bollards that were previously in place will be reinstated.

“Uisce Éireann...regret any inconvenience caused to road s and are grateful for their patience while we complete these works as quickly as possible,” they said, adding that they will continue to closely monitor the area and will conduct temporary interventions as required until permanent reinstatement can be completed.

Councillor O’Flynn responded by calling on Irish Water to “get their act together and carry out repairs as quickly as possible, before another person ends up in an ambulance or worse”.

“We are talking about people’s safety here, that should always be put to the forefront of any state body,” he said.