The never-ending saga of a relief road for Mountmellick rumbles on

FOR over 50 years there has been countless on-going discussions, plans and funding provided for a proposed Inner Relief Road for Mountmellick.

The planned route was to run from the N80 in Derrycloney to Manor Road, to deal with traffic congestion in the town centre.

The latest debate on the long-awaited road trundled on last week in the Dáil during parliamentary question time when local Independent Republican TD Brian Stanley raised the need for the relief road to be designated for funding.

He said: “Traffic volumes have increased. More than 8,500 vehicles go through the centre of town every day. A lot of that traffic is HGVs going from the west of Ireland and the midlands to the port of Rosslare.

“A feasibility study has been carried out at a cost of more than €100,000 and a preferred route has been selected. This road would shorten journey times, reduce carbon emissions, and reduce congestion in the town.

“The Tánaiste and Deputy Willie Aird promised this during the election campaign.” 

Deputy Stanley said: “According to Transport Infrastructure Ireland, this road is not included among the projects identified for development during the period of the current NDP.” 

In reply Deputy Stanley was informed that the issue he raised would be brought to the attention of the Minister for Climate, Environment and Energy and Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien.

Talk about providing Mountmellick with an Inner Relief Road has been around for years and intensive activity around it in a three year period from 2006 to 2008.

In October 2006 it was announced that €2.8 million had been set-a-side for “preparatory works on the proposed Inner Relief Road for the town,” and that was only after nine years after intensive lobbying by council officials to acquire the funding.

In February 2007 a An Bord Pleanála oral hearing on the relief road was held.

At the April council meeting, the same year, the council's senior engineer Michael O’Hora said the National Roads Authority (now Transport Infrastructure Ireland) had allocated €150,000 for the initial planning stages of the plan. He said that in order to complete the final stages of the consultation process, which includes the CPO stage, an additional €350,000 was required and needs the approval of the NRA. He said that the NRA had committed €19 million for ‘Route A’ which was turned down by ABP and that the council had not yet been approved additional funding for an alternative route but he was “hopeful it would.” However in November 2007 the proposed relief road was halted dead in its tracks when the NRA told town councillors that there was no money to fund the proposals.

A month later the former Independent councillor Michael Moloney said that the NRA had rejected an alternative ‘Route B’ and asked the council to re-evaluate ‘Route A.’ 

Following heated discussions at that council meeting the then council’s Director of Services Gerry Gibson said: “For once and for all we can’t revisit ‘Route A’ to restart the process. There were objections to it by the Mountmellick Development Association (MDA) and 26 residents. It went to ABP and they threw it out.” 

In March 2008 the then town commissioner Bobby Delaney said that he would “lead people out onto the streets in protests and halt traffic if Mountmellick does not get an Inner Relief Road.” 

In May 2008 the then Mountmellick based Junior Minister John Moloney, local TD Charlie Flanagan and the then County Manager Peter Carey met with NRA officials.

Following that meeting Minister Moloney, in an interview with the ‘Laois Nationalist,’ said about the Inner Relief Road: “The position now is the costs have escalated. What started off at about €8m is now around €22m. The NRA says it is now not value for money and they will totally oppose this. They will not give us €22m. There is no way it is going to happen.” 

A month later the then Deputy County Manager Declan Byrne told a meeting of town councillors in Mountmellick: “The NRA is looking at funding an outer by-pass.” 

 In September 2013 the then county manager Peter Carey told Town councillors in Mountmellick “The N80 is our top priority. It will not be done over the next two or three years but it remains there as a key objective. When it will be done is anyone’s guess at this stage” Matters abated somewhat until April 2017 when the relief road re-appeared on the council’s agenda.

At that meeting the then county manager John Mulholland told councillors that the council had received €100,000 to carry out a feasibility study about the possibility of constructing a by-pass around the centre of Mountmellick from the western side of the town.

Mountmellick based councillor Paddy Bracken, speaking at the same meeting said: “A lot of groundwork was done before. There was an alternative route planned before from Derrycloney. It’s very badly needed for the town. I hope the work progresses at a pace.” 

The council's former Director of Services Kieran Kehoe also said at that meeting: “We will start preparing a scheme and will appoint consultants within the next few months.” At the March 2019 council meeting Mr Mulholland, in his monthly report, told councillors: “Laois County Council has prepared tender documents for the appointment of consulting engineers to complete a feasibility study for the N80 Mountmellick Relief Road.

“TII approval to proceed to tender was received on 14 March and the tender documents were issued to the consulting engineers on the TII framework on 15 March. Tenders are to be delivered to Laois County Council by 15 April.” 

The Director of Services Donal Brennan went on to inform councillors that he expected the tender to be awarded by mid-summer and the feasibility study completed by April 2020.

At the 2024 July meeting of Laois County Council Mountmellick based councillor Paddy Bracken said that motorists are now by-passing the town altogether heading on towards Tullamore and using an “unofficial bypass” which is causing serious damage to that roadway.

Just week’s out from last year’s (2024) general election the then Taoiseach Simon Harris on a visit to Mountmellick promised to prioritise the recommended N80 bypass of Mountmellick if reelected.