Warning To Those Travelling On Mill Road Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

Gardaí are advising motorists tonight to exert extreme care while travelling on the roads around Co. Tipperary, as hazardous driving conditions are being reported. Motorists are being asked to please slow down.

Vehicles travelling on the Mill Road, Thurles are particularly being warned to take extreme care as surface water is presently, despite no rain over the past week, continuing to flow out through gateways, unto a large part of the road surface.

There has been a failure by Thurles Municipal District engineers over the past 2 years to clear the drains in this area.

Due to promised temperatures of at least -2 tonight; the road surface in this area, is expected to become extremely icy; with schools reopening tomorrow, large volumes of traffic will attempt to use this area in an effort to avoid the town centre, altogether.

What is causing this sudden unprecedented excess surface water on the Mill Road, over the past 2 years has as yet not been identified.

This area is a natural flood-plain for the River Suir. Such natural flood-plains are increasingly being environmentally degraded and devalued. As a result of urbanisation and infrastructural development, natural flooding can result in the land surface becoming impermeable (watertight). Thus, natural drainage of water that once was allowed to pass through the soil and its numerous layers are often undermined by the construction of housing, the erection of pavements and tarmac surfaces, resulting in surface run-off, due to a sudden rapid increase in a river’s natural discharge.
It should be noted that some 26 houses were granted planning permission and erected on the Mill Road, in the past 2 years and the contractor was allowed to exit the site, leaving all road drains compacted with muck from heavy machinery used.

Attempts to have one area of this road repaired, [View Here], on December 7th, 2023, resulted in a few shovels of cold tarmac, now rapidly vanishing, and a number of trenches being dug into the ditch, as shown in picture above.

Why in God’s name, do we continue to pay ‘Property Tax’, ‘Road Tax’ and ‘high salaries’, latter to officials, when we receive such poor response when it comes to maintaining essential services. It is becoming more evident that locally elected Councillors and their officials are no longer in control of Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the service they are supposed to supply.

Some 4 days ago, January 3rd, 2024, [View Here] on Thurles.info we highlighted the shocking state of Kickham Street’s road surface. We are delighted to report that on January 4th (and thankfully before school traffic returns) most of the multitude of potholes were filled.
This work is also a very short-term safety measure, nevertheless same is to be welcomed. It is not, however, a long-term solution. Kickham Street’s full and thorough rehabilitation and resurfacing are imperative.
This stretch of road accommodates huge volumes of traffic daily. Given the absence of a ring road and the deplorable state of the Mill Road alternative, (narrow driving conditions, potholes and severe flooding), there will be no decrease in traffic on this main route entering the town, that includes Kickham Street.
Its maintenance and improvement is, therefore, a necessary priority and plans to initiate improvements should be implemented as soon as possible.

A copy of this report has been sent to senior officials; sharon.scully@tipperarycoco.ie, to joe.macgrath@tipperarycoco.ie, and marcus.oconnor@tipperarycoco.ie.