Potholes and traffic jams on election agenda in Co Cavan

3,000km of roads run through Co Cavan. Just 130km is national road, with the vast majority being local and regional roads. 40% of Cavan’s road network is classified as being in a poor or very poor condition.

As part of an ongoing series of reports on key local election issues around the country, RTÉ’s North East Correspondent Laura Hogan reports from Co Cavan on the issues around traffic, road infrastructure and poor road conditions that are affecting people.

The notorious traffic bottleneck in Virginia is evident from the moment we arrive in the Co Cavan town on a Friday afternoon.

Fridays are probably the worst for congestion through the town, which is nestled on the N3, the main artery through Cavan and also the main route from Dublin to Donegal.

But this traffic problem is a daily one.

Bumper to bumper, cars, buses and HGVs slowly negotiate their way around a small roundabout located just across from the Mason’s Apron café.

“Definitely, traffic is a talking point here,” said Patricia England.

She’s been running the restaurant and bakery in Virginia for more than 20 years.

“All the lorries find it very hard to get around the roundabout together. Traffic comes to a standstill, and no one can get through the town.”

Patricia said the traffic can have a knock-on effect on business.

“It gets very congested. It stops locals coming in during busy periods, and I’m sure a lot of people are frustrated sitting in traffic, and they don’t be inclined to stop, that’s if they’re lucky enough to get a parking spot when they do come in,” she said.

“Definitely on a Friday, a lot of locals make alternative arrangements because they know it’s going to be so busy. We can tell in our restaurant; we could have a very busy morning and lunchtime, and then it just stops. Locals will do their business on other days. Fridays are very frustrating,” she said.

Many people believe a long-awaited bypass would alleviate the town’s traffic problems.

“The town needs a bypass, there is no doubt about it,” she said.

“It will give a better flow. We’ll have no lorries coming through, it should make things easier.”

“No one knows how a bypass will affect the town, but we have a lovely town with lots of amenities. It looks lovely, we have our woods, the library and a theatre, it’s a nice town to be in,” she said.

N3 Virginia bypass

The proposed N3 Virginia bypass, however, is still a long way down the road.

The 16.5km project, which is part of the National Development Plan, is still in the early planning stages and construction is not expected to begin for several years.

In the meantime, motorists have sought alternative routes, creating “their own bypass” through the rural parish of Munterconnaught.

Residents have raised concerns about the heavy volumes of traffic there as a result of motorists taking detours while trying to avoid Virginia.

This, they say, has created safety issues and has impacted on the condition of the road.

I met Noel McEnroe at the side of the road, with a GAA club on one side and a pub, a shop and an undertaker on the other.

“There’s supposed to be a bypass coming. At the moment, there’s not. People have made this their own bypass. A lot of cars come this way every evening, especially on Friday evening. Thousands of cars.”

Mr McEnroe is the Chairman of the Munterconnaught Community Development Association.

He said the local road is “absolutely not” fit for the volume of traffic it is now carrying and the road “is just not built for it”.

“It needs an upgrade. It needs traffic calming.”

“The road is very worn, the surface of it has degraded completely in some places. Potholes are filled but they keep reappearing,” he said.

He wants the 5km stretch to be bottomed out and tarmacadamed again.

Resident Aidan O’Dwyer describes feeling like a prisoner in his own home at peak times.

He says that people can’t leave their houses or let their children out because of the heavy traffic travelling at speed.

“They’re coming off the N3 and they think they’re still on the N3 when they come here. I’m very worried there’ll be a fatal accident,” he said.

“I want to get across that they’re not on the N3, they’re on a local road. Please, please slow down, before there’s an accident in this area.”

Mr O’Dwyer said he has raised his concerns with election candidates.

“And I’ll keep raising it until something is done, because my conscience wouldn’t let me say someone was killed on this road, without me trying to do something about it,” he said.

Road conditions

The state of the roads and potholes is a hot topic in every county, not just in Cavan.

This is especially the case around the time of local elections. For bus operator Seamus Reilly, it’s a big issue.

He’s on the road five or six days a week, providing a local link service, as well as school and health transport services too.

Mr Reilly said that while the roads have improved over the years, there is “a lot to be desired”.

“Some of the roads I’d be travelling on, you might as well be driving up Croagh Patrick at times, if that was possible, they’re full of potholes,” he said.

Seamus said that maintaining his buses is an issue when the condition of the roads is poor.

“The week before last, I broke a spring on the bus, that’s costing me about €750 plus VAT to replace it. And there’s no comeback to try and get someone to fix it or make someone accountable, it’s nearly impossible. You’re better off going and buying the spring yourself and putting it in,” he said.

The bus operator claims that many potholes have disappeared in recent weeks ahead of the local election.

“In the last two weeks, there was any amount of potholes. The last week or two weeks they’re gone. It says something doesn’t it, when people are coming knocking on your door canvassing, there’s no potholes anymore.”

Seamus believes it’s not just an issue for buses, but also for lorry drivers and private motorists.

He wonders where the money from motor tax goes. “I think in 2024, we are entitled to good roads,” he said.

But fixing them all comes with a hefty price tag.

The vast majority of Cavan’s 3,000km road network is local and regional roads and 40% of the county’s road network has been classified as being in poor or very poor condition.

Cavan County Council said that this means these roads require “constant maintenance including pothole and patching repairs”.

The cost of fully restoring these poor roads will be about €200m. That is many, many multiples of the local authority’s 2024 budget for the work, of about €17m.

In 2024, the Council received €18m in funding from the Department of Transport for the maintenance of the local and regional road network.

However, only about €14m of that goes towards the improvement and upkeep of the network.

The rest of the funding is allocated for specific schemes and works like repairing bridges, drainage, cycle signs and speed limits.

Cavan County Council also has a further €3m from its own budget for that.

So why are many roads in the county in such poor condition?

There are numerous factors.

Cavan’s geography is one. Its soft, poor draining soil makes the rural road network there more susceptible to traffic and wheel load damage.

The nature of industry and agriculture in the area means there are a lot of heavy goods vehicles, machinery and agricultural vehicles on the roads.

Then there’s climate change and weather events.

The Council said that the level of repairs and maintenance needed has increased significantly due to the poor weather conditions over the past year.

As an area with many lakes, roads there are also prone to flooding and subsequent damage from that.

All this, along with increasing costs of carrying out repair works, are causing further difficulties.

Cavan County Council said the costs have increased significantly in the last three years.

This has resulted in planned works this year on a number of roads being postponed due to a lack of funding, and a considerably reduced programme of road restoration this year.

So far, about €6m for roads improvement has been spent with the rest of the projects due to start in the next two months.

However, Cavan County Council said the projected cost of road repairs for the year is “difficult to quantify”, because the impact of weather events will have a “significant bearing” on the final cost.

Recognising that climate change has contributed to a deterioration in the surface quality of some parts of the road network, additional nationwide funding of €30m was announced by the Department of Transport last week.

Cavan will be allocated €916,500 from that additional funding.

The announcement came last Friday, exactly one week before voters go to the polls in the local elections.

‘Everything does be in bits’

In the town of Ballyjamesduff, heavy traffic trundles through the streets at lunchtime.

There, we asked people if roads were a topic they would bring up on the doorstep ahead of the local elections.

“Definitely. They’re in bits, can they fix them?!”, asked Tony Malone.

Originally from Dublin, he has been living in the Cavan town for 17 years and said there are “potholes everywhere”.

“When they fill them, they only last a couple of days, because all the 40-foots come through the town,” he said.

Local butcher Vincent Conaty said the roads are something he would be raising with election hopefuls if they call to his door.

“It’d be a major issue alright, the roads, they’re not in a great state at the moment, it would be good to see them improve a little bit,” he said.

Mr Conaty said road safety, road conditions and heavy traffic are all of concern. He has had one or two canvassers and said he has “absolutely” raised this with them.

Another resident, Sabrina Kelly, said the minor roads are “in a bad state”.

“The roads here are very bad, you pay your taxes for the roads,” she said.

“Mainly the minor roads coming into the town. There’s a good few of them with potholes. Your car tyres, everything does be in bits,” she said.

Road safety

Road safety is also on the agenda for people there too.

Not far from Virginia, there have been calls for improved facilities at Whitegate.

People commuting from Cavan to Dublin by bus or carpool often leave their cars parked there on the roadside.

There have been calls for a dedicated park and ride facility there.

Safety concerns include hazards on the hard shoulder, pedestrians crossing the road, and turning vehicles on a high-speed section of the N3 at an existing informal car park and bus stop.

Cavan County Council has sent a report to Transport Infrastructure Ireland with a request for funding for such a scheme.

TII, which has responsibility for the national road network, said it is engaging with the council on a proposed location for the park and ride facility and are “working collaboratively to bring the project forward”.

Improving road safety is already in progress in other areas, like between Corduff and Killydoon, where a road realignment scheme is removing dangerous bends for road users.

The 3.7km stretch of road improvements is expected to be complete by the end of this year.