Road Surface Conditions In Thurles No Longer Acceptable

“For a ha’porth of tar, (halfpenny worth) the ship was lost.”

Tipperary County Council continue to waste tax payers money.

A public road crater, situated in the middle of the road, approximately 457 metres (500 yards) from the Thurles Municipal District Council offices, latter situated on Mathew Avenue, Thurles; went unnoticed by council engineers, council officials, local elected district councillors and other Thurles Municipal District members of staff, over the past week.

This morning, workers went about filling this crater, together with a vast array of other Thurles potholes, using their weekly quota of cold tarmac; placing same on top of water puddles. Next Thursday they will be back to fill them all up once again.

However, this particular crater in question; situated at the top of Friar Street, east of the railway bridge in the town, will cost Tipperary County Council or Thurles Municipal District Council a little more than five shovels of cold tarmac (we as residents do not know ‘who’ in council circles are actually responsible for ‘what’ nowadays).

This morning, early vehicle drivers, travelling to work, struck this crater, resulting in 5 vehicles having tyres blown out, damaging not just their vehicles tyre walls, but also wheel rims.

On February 18th 2020 last the Chief Executive of Tipperary County Council Mr Joe MacGrath took time out on local radio to state that he was ‘encouraged’ by this year’s funding allocation for road improvements with a total of €43 million available for roads in Co. Tipperary this year; an increase of 77% since 2016.

Mr MacGrath went on to say that this was “a cause for optimism for road infrastructure in Tipperary.” (Sorry, it has not done much for Thurles urban roads Mr MacGrath.)

What Mr MacGrath failed to state on radio was the cost of compensation paid to Tipperary motorists, latter who claimed for damages to their respective motor vehicles due to unacceptable road surface conditions, since 2016.

While 4 of the tyres damaged today will cost around €75 Euros, (including fitting and tracking), a tyre on the 5th victim’s car was a ‘Premium Tyre’, costing €170 Euros, not readily available to purchase and has now to be placed on special order.